Re: [boost] Is there any interest in a geometry library?

From: Hervé Brönnimann (hervebronnimann_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-03-07 22:43:45

Michael:  You are disingenuous :)  It is not a boost-compatible  
license, but it is ***open-source*** and that applies to every user,  
even those working for a commercial product:

<Quote from www.cgal.org>
> CGAL is distributed under a dual-license scheme. Users who develop  
> software under an open source license can use CGAL freely. Users  
> who want to protect their intellectual property, but want to profit  
> from off-the-shelf, reliable, and efficient geometric algorithms  
> can obtain a commercial license from GeometryFactory. For more  
> details see the License page.

See http://www.cgal.org/license.html for details.  In short, cgal is  
split into three core areas (kernel, basic lib, and support lib). As  
stated on their page:

> Approximately, the Kernel and Support libraries are under the LGPL,  
> and the Basic library is under the QPL, but there are some  
> exceptions in both directions. A more detailed list of packages  
> with their license can be found in the packages overview web page.

If you do not want to make your additions or modifications public,  
you can buy the  commercial license. But if you only want to *use* it  
off the shelf, even for proprietary and commercial projects, the LGPL  
should allow you to do that without buying a commercial license.   
 From their web page:

> The Lesser General Public License gives you the right to use and  
> copy the code freely. It is also possible to modify the code under  
> the condition that the resulting modification is released as source  
> code under the LGPL with any binary distribution that you may do of  
> a resulting application using these LGPL parts.

In other words, as long as you do not require a modification, and do  
not distribute cgal (either in source or in binary) with your own  
project., you do not need to buy a license.  If you require  
modifications, you can make a package which you distribute as open  
source from your modifications (with the proviso of the LGPL that  
your modifications must acknowledge CGAL and must be distribute in  
source openly under a LGPL license, and not only in binary).  But  
your own project can use these LGPL again without needing to purchase  
a commercial license.

The parts under QPL are more stringent requirements, again from their  
page:
> The Q Public License gives you the right to use the code under the  
> condition that any program using it be released itself under an  
> Open Source license. Note that this also concerns software that you  
> develop for in-house usage. Concerning modifications, they are also  
> allowed under the condition that they be distributed as patches  
> against the original sources.
But the parts that were discussed in this thread, i.e. the 2D/3D  
kernel,  are mostly (all) under LGPL.  So unless your circumstances  
are very particular and you *really* need the QPL parts, I don't  
think you are required to purchase a commercial license at all.
--
Hervé Brönnimann
hervebronnimann_at_[hidden]
On Mar 7, 2007, at 10:12 PM, Michael Marcin wrote:
> I've never heard of it before but I just went to their page and I am
> instantly met with the first case where it does not fit my  
> requirements.  It
> requires you to buy a commercial license... this is hardly a Boost
> compatible license.
>
> - Michael Marcin
>
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