[Box Backup] Future development plan

[Ben Summers]

On 18 Aug 2005, at 14:56, Nick Knight wrote:

> Agree with all - I will try to commit some time to this it is an
> important project.
>
> The diffing time patch is in the win32 port - it would be good to  
> agree
> to on the approach.

And with that, we have basic agreement from all the recent  
contributors. (I'm really hoping I haven't forgotten anyone having  
said that!)


>
> Coding standard - definitely the way to go if this is going to be a  
> team
> effort!

I shall write some brief notes on it, and get agreement before we  
start. But having said that, I got here first.

There is the tab stop issue. I work with tabs set to four spaces, and  
I do know how painful it is to work with others. Especially emacs  
users, who seem to delight in using wonderfully odd combinations of  
spaces and tabs.


On the license, Martin's comments are only relevant to GPL licenses.  
The BSD license would allow me to pull back changes. If we're to stay  
with the BSD license, there are two issues:

1) The copyright holder. When there are multiple contributors, it  
becomes confusing. However, I think this is only a real issue for GPL  
projects who wish to have a dual license in the future.

2) The "advertising clause". This becomes much less clear-cut when  
there are many contributors. Amusingly, if we let it stand, I would  
have to enforce that clause on any changes I pulled back.

I hope I'm not going into too much detail or making too big a thing  
out of this, but I don't want to have licensing issues or  
misunderstandings later on!

Ben






> -----Original Message-----
> From: boxbackup-admin@fluffy.co.uk [mailto:boxbackup- 
> admin@fluffy.co.uk]
> On Behalf Of Jonathan Morton
> Sent: 18 August 2005 13:37
> To: boxbackup@fluffy.co.uk
> Subject: Re: [Box Backup] Future development plan
>
>
>> I propose:
>>
>> * Set up SVN repository. Import 0.09 + my minor modifications
>>
>> * Add in the following code in branches:
>>     - Win32 port (Nick)
>>     - Solaris port (Martin)
>>     - Autoconf, 64 bit stuff, etc (LinuxOnPower) (Martin)
>>     - Optimised diffing (Jonathan)
>>     - (anything I've forgotten?)
>> trying to keep different changes in different branches.
>>
>
> Seems reasonable.
>
>
>> * Has everyone got enough time to get this done?
>>
>
> It may be slow at my end, but I can get things done.
>
>
>> * Will people put up with my insistence on the style of the code  
>> being
>>
>
>
>> consistent?
>>
>
> Consistent code style is a good idea, although I think yours is
> slightly different from mine...
>
>
>> * Where should the SVN repository live? (Sourceforge don't provide
>> one, but there are a few "free" providers listed. I might set up a
>> repository on one of my servers, however.)
>>
>
> No idea about this.
>
>
>> * What do we do about the license, and who holds the copyright?
>>
>
>
>> I use the various libraries to build other private projects, and I'd
>> quite like to be able to bring changes into my own code. I have a
>> preference for the BSD license, because BSD licensed projects have
>> been so helpful to me in the past. But apart from that, I have no
>> strong feelings either way.
>>
>
> For "private" projects, which are never released, the licence doesn't
> matter at all (unless it's an EULA that prohibits reverse-engineering
> or something stupid like that - and even that's debatable).  The GPL
> specifically encourages this kind of code sharing.
>
> The only problem would be if you wanted to take some of the modified
> code and use it in a commercial project.  Then you'd either need to
> stipulate to your customer that the result will be released under the
> GPL, or ensure you have the right to use all the relevant code in a
> closed-source project, or go back to your original code that you own
> yourself.
>
> One solution would be to gather all "library type" code under an LGPL
> licence, which encourages code-sharing but does not preclude use in a
> commercial, closed-source project.  Not everyone will be happy with
> this, but I would hazard that it's the same set of people who would be
> unhappy with simply assigning copyright.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> from:     Jonathan "Chromatix" Morton
> mail:     chromi@chromatix.demon.co.uk
> website:  http://www.chromatix.uklinux.net/
> tagline:  The key to knowledge is not to rely on people to teach  
> you it.
>
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