On 2004-11-19 11:18 AM, Jonathan Wilson wrote:
In light of e.g. http://reactos.com:8080/archives/public/ros-dev/2004-November/000658.html I would like to suggest the following header ideas.
Currently MingW has: 1.A set of headers that contain a copy of part of the platform SDK
I'm sure you already understand this, but in light of the aggressive actions some companies have taken to defend copyright, it bears repetition:
I think it's incorrect to say "copy" here. As far as I know, ms copyrights its headers and MinGW never copies them. MinGW provides different headers that are written on the basis of public information only, and that strive to embody the same information to the extent it's been publicly released, but without reference to any copyrighted materials.
[Snip proposal for merging such headers from MinGW and other projects]
Just suggestions btw, if they are good, say so
It seems good to avoid duplication of effort.
If they are bad, say so (and say why)
To the extent that effort has already been duplicated, resolving any differences will be a lot of work. That's a drawback, but it still seems like a good idea. Yet someone would have to do the work.
An incidental benefit of duplicate effort that has produced different expressions of the underlying idea is that this outcome strengthens the demonstration that copyright has not been violated. If the different expressions can be combined without reference to copyrighted materials, then I don't think that's a real obstacle--the historical record would still make the point. I think Earnie was the first to point this out.
If there are issues with my idea, say what they are.
Previous discussions have mentioned licensing issues and the magnitude of the effort required. I find threads beginning with these messages:
Subject: [Mingw-users] Re: [ros-kernel] Proposed ReactOS headers and code sharing policy From: "Eric Kohl" ekohl@rz-online.de Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2003 12:42:43 +0200
Subject: [Mingw-users] a proposal that will affect MingW-Runtime, w32api, ReactOS and WINE From: Jonathan Wilson jonwil@tpgi.com.au Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2003 12:44:53 +0800