MELT on github?

[adit...@samsung.com]

Is it possible to have this project on github such that others can fork and hack on it?

Thanks,

-Aditya

[Basile Starynkevitch]

On Thu, 2016-12-08 at 13:20 -0800, adit...@samsung.com wrote:
>
> Is it possible to have this project on github such that others can fork and hack on it?

It certainly would be possible if got a contract (e.g. from samsung to my employer CEA, LIST)
funding such activity. So if that (or if MELT) is important to some activity at samsung or other
corporation, and if any corporation is interested in MELT to the point of contributing to its
funding (thru a formal contract with my employer CEA, LIST), please contact me at my
professional office email: basile dot starynkevitch at cea dot fr.

BTW, MELT is an experimental branch of GCC, and is FSF copyrighted (like all GCC code).

If I made MELT a github branch, and if someone would push even a tiny patch to it, that
contributor should have signed with the FSF a copyright assignment legal paper (so that I would
be legally able to accept that patch). See https://gcc.gnu.org/contribute.html and notably the
legal prerequisites part of it. All the (few) previous -even minor- patches from outsiders have
been under this legal framework. I would be at fault if (even by mistake) I incorporated a tiny
patch in MELT which is not covered by these legalese. I am not a lawyer at all, but I have been
told by lawyers at CEA, LIST (my employer in France) to be very cautious about these legal
issues. I certainly don't want to put my job at risk by any legal fault (so I prefer to be too
much cautious) from my part.

These legal aspects (and I don't understand all the details of them, not being a lawyer) are not
specific to MELT, they apply to any GCC code on any GCC branch.

Of course, you (or anyone) can get the latest MELT patch and work on it on github or any other
repository (becaue MELT is like GCC under GPLv3+ license). But to get any of your patch brought
back into the MELT branch of GCC requires (in my understanding) the FSF copyright assignment
framework.

If you want to submit a patch to MELT and if your employer has an FSF copyright assignment (I
guess that samsung would have one, but you have to check that) you can just send patches on the 
gcc-p...@gcc.gnu.org list and I will review then incorporate them in MELT.

Regards
--
Basile Starynkevitch, France
http://starynkevitch.net/Basile/