my name is mwd

I find this gcc mailing list posting quite interesting. According to this, there is a policy in gcc development that sets out to make it hard for people to use the cores of gcc for other projects. Whilst the code is GPL’d and this no one can stop you taking the code to gcc and trying to build another GPL’d project from it, they’re trying their damnest to make sure that doesn’t happen - at least that’s how I read this.

So, what’s the benefit here of having the source free, if they’re going out their way to make it hard for anyone one to benefit from this? Well, obviously it encourages people to work on the official version of gcc, which is a good thing, and it makes the whole development process transparent, making it easier to see how and where gcc is going. But still, I wonder who in the FSF took this decision, as it seems a bit of hypocrisy.

Link: http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2003-07/msg00437.html