GHC's reliance on the LGPLed GMP library ... use integer-simple in your GHC

I think this can still use some attention. GHC requires an integer library internally, so to switch to integer-simple, you need to build GHC from source. Has anyone reviewed of the performance implications of this switch? +the new GHC Performance Team, Johan and Bryan Thanks, Greg On Fri, Dec 14, 2012 at 4:21 AM, Niklas Larsson wrote:

Yes, if you link statically, if you want to distribute without giving away source (or relinkable object files) you can link dynamically or use integer-simple in your GHC.

Niklas ------------------------------ Från: Herbert Valerio Riedel Skickat: 2012-12-14 11:55 Till: Brandon Allbery Kopia: Ramana Kumar ; haskell-cafe Ämne: Re: [Haskell-cafe] ANNOUNCE: tie-knot library

Brandon Allbery writes:

...

Haskell libraries are mostly BSD licensed, as is GHC itself. (Oddly enough, GPL is not the only open source license.)

btw, what about GHC's reliance on the LGPLed GMP library? Doesn't that already taint the whole GHC eco-system?

Quoting [1]:

| GMP is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), a | kind of "copyleft" license. According to the terms of the LGPL, | paragraph 5, you may distribute a program that is designed to be | compiled and dynamically linked with the library under the terms of | your choice (i.e., commercially) but if your program incorporates | portions of the library, if it is linked statically, then your program | is a "derivative"--a "work based on the library"--and according to | paragraph 2, section c, you "must cause the whole of the work to be | licensed" under the terms of the LGPL (including for free). | | The LGPL licensing for GMP is a problem for the overall licensing of | binary programs compiled with GHC because most distributions (and | builds) of GHC use static libraries. (Dynamic libraries are currently | distributed only for OS X.) The LGPL licensing situation may be worse: | even though The Glasgow Haskell Compiler License is essentially a | "free software" license (BSD3), according to paragraph 2 of the LGPL, | GHC must be distributed under the terms of the LGPL!

[1]: http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/ReplacingGMPNotes#ReasonsforReplaci...

cheers, hvr

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