[ale] OT: GPL Question

[cfowler]

On Wed, 2002-09-04 at 12:23, Michael Hirsch wrote:
> On Wed, 2002-09-04 at 12:18, cfowler wrote:
> > This is something I deal with everyday.  I am working on an embedded
> > project that is very specific in design.  Sure I use some GPL code and
> > some proprietary code.  But the GPL code does not fulfill my needs or
> > does something that I need it to do.  So I have 2 options.
> > 
> > 
> > 1) Modify to add/remove functionality
> > 
> > 2) Rewrite my own stuff
> > 
> > 
> > I ususally pick #2.  Most GPL code is so poorly documented, #2 saves me
> > more time then trying to reverse engineer the code so I can add to it. 
> 
> I have the same questions all the time in both my current job and my
> previous one.  I usually pick #1.  If there is GPL code that does 90% of
> what I want it is way easier to modify the GPLed code than to redo it
> from scratch.  But I have done it both ways.
> 

Agreed.  But I need to be careful about my modifications.  I'll give you
an example.  I store *all* configuration info in shared memory.  I need
a function to grab this info so I have a library funciton called
getCfgPtr();  Even though I add this function to GPL code I do not want
to give it away.  For me that would be dumb.

Chris


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