[Rd] Sligthly OT Re: Makefile for embedding OpenBUGS in R package

[Prof Brian Ripley]

OpenBUGS is distributed under GPL2, so this seems not to apply.
It is distributed as source and as binaries: the difficulty is that it is 
written in Object Pascal for which a compiler is not readily available.

On Tue, 7 Aug 2007, Hin-Tak Leung wrote:

> Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
>> On Mon, 6 Aug 2007, Tobias Verbeke wrote:
> <snipped>
>>>> I presume.
>>> Actually, these files appear to differ. The file I referred to
>>> was the file ./Manuals/CBugs.html contained in the current OpenBUGS
>>> release:
>>> 
>>> http://mathstat.helsinki.fi/openbugs/OpenBUGS.zip
>> 
>> I am baffled by that C file: why not just link an even simpler stub against 
>> brugs.so rather than play around with dlopen?
>> 
>> 
> <snipped>
>
> [I am not familiar with openbugs nor its licensing terms, but seeing as it is 
> distributed as part-binary-only...]
>
> I agree there is little technical reasons for dlopen() vs a simpler
> stub, but there is occasionally licensing/legal reasons for doing so - 
> GPL-licensed code dlopen()'ing proprietary-licensed binary-only DLL/so
> is allowed, but a 'more intimate' linking of GPL-code with more restrictive 
> code is sometimes troublesome in its licensing status.

But the C code is also under GPL2: see the comment on the web page I 
mentioned.

Doing what Tobias is proposing (communicating with another program via 
files) is generally accepted as allowed under different licencing 
agreements.  The whole brugs executable would be under GPL2.


> (for private/internal use, there is no reason for going the dlopen() 
> routine...) Just an idea...
>
> Hin-Tak
>

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595