Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 05:28:46 +1000 (GMT+1000) From: Trent Waddington <s337240@student.uq.edu.au> To: <freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org> Subject: Stallman stalls again Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.4.30.0102210356590.15120-100000@student.uq.edu.au>
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Late '99 I wrote a backend for gcc targeting the java virtual machine. At the time the university I was working for did not want to release the code (they had paid me to develop it) but I managed to convince them that it was better to release the source code than have it sit on the shelf and do nothing. They refused however to sign the copyright assignment forms to make it part of the gcc distribution. I recently asked RMS if he figured it would be worth my while to go and ask for the assignment again as I figured that after reaping nothing from the code for 18 months they may be more forthcoming. This is the response I got. RMS essentially tells me to bury the code in the backyard because it might be "dangerous". ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 08:59:32 -0700 (MST) From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> To: s337240@student.uq.edu.au Subject: Re: java backend If it is possible to compile languages such as C into Java byte codes, I see a great danger. The danger is that people will use Java byte codes to hook GCC up to proprietary back ends and proprietary front ends. They could also generate Java byte codes, run a proprietary optimizer, and feed the result back into GCC. In effect, the support for Java byte codes would undermine the goals of the GPL. If your changes really do make such activities much easier, more feasible in practice, then I think it would have been better if you had never implemented the feature. And now it would be better now if you take these changes off your web site, and don't mention that they exist. Of course, someone else really determined could redo the work, the extra burden of doing so might dissuade people from trying. Did we discuss this previously? I don't remember, because my memory is not as good as it was. If we did, I will search for the old mail. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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