Why GPL for a toolkit?

[nicastel]

Hello, i'm a user of the WorldWind Java Toolkit and I'm very
interested to see an alternative.
But i don't understand the choice of the GPL v3 for the license
because this mean that every application that i will built with the
Ptolemy toolkit has to be open sourced. I think that another license
that allow to develop a not completely open source application such as
GPL with classpath exception or LGPL will be far more well suited. The
actual license prevents me from using and contributing to your
toolkit. You criticize the World Wind toolkit for the NOSA license but
in my point of view your license is even worse. The GPL is well suited
for an application only, not for a toolkit that intents to be reused.
I hope you change your mind.

Best regards,
Nicolas CASTEL

[asantiago]

Hi Nicolas,
and thanks for your feedback.

On Feb 21, 11:58 pm, nicastel <ahez...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello, i'm a user of the WorldWind Java Toolkit and I'm very
> interested to see an alternative.

Really I prefer the "alternative" word than "competitor" as I read on
some sites this days. pTolemy is simply another virtual globe, better
or worse than others.
I know a bit about WWJ and it is a great project. Personally I would
like ptolemy3D will be equal or better than WWJ some day ;)

> But i don't understand the choice of the GPL v3 for the license
> because this mean that every application that i will built with the
> Ptolemy toolkit has to be open sourced. I think that another license
> that allow to develop a not completely open source application such as
> GPL with classpath exception or LGPL will be far more well suited. The
> actual license prevents me from using and contributing to your
> toolkit. You criticize the World Wind toolkit for the NOSA license but
> in my point of view your license is even worse. The GPL is well suited
> for an application only, not for a toolkit that intents to be reused.
> I hope you change your mind.
>

I think there is no special reason why the project is GPL. From the
begining we have in mind to create a really "free" project (I mean
GPL), available in a SVN and where everybody could contribute. So we
though the people will feel better with a GPL license.

> Best regards,
> Nicolas CASTEL

Thanks to you, I hope you continue following the pTolemy3D project
although to bring us your opinions or ideas.

Antonio Santiago

[mwkorver]

Hi Nicolas,

There are probably parts of the project that don't need to be GPLv3,
like some of the data creation tools we plan to release. But we don't
believe that the core parts, the viewer and plugins are one of those.

The primary focus of pTolemy3D is the development of a browser
embedded applet, though of course it's also possible to create
standalone Java applications. GPLv3 is a strategic decision for us.
Our hope is to grow a community of developers that are willing to
provide improvements to these core parts in an open way and help
pTolemy3D mature as a FOSS project

There is nothing stopping you as a developer who is interested in
developing an AJAX style web application that uses pTolemy3D for
display, from keeping your js wrapper code and server side components
proprietary. Those parts are not impacted by the pTolemy3D license.
We don't see applications that are built with pTolemy3D as having to
be GPL.

However, it could very well be that if you are not interested in
browser embedded java viewers, that WWJ might be the better way to go.