Subject: Re: Detecting the need for -mwin32 in newer cygwin gcc's
From: Christopher Faylor <[email-masked]>
To: "Charles S. Wilson" <[email-masked]>
Cc: Alexandre Oliva <[email-masked]>, [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2001 11:56:58 -0500

On Thu, Mar 08, 2001 at 03:47:44AM -0500, Charles S. Wilson wrote:
>Alexandre Oliva wrote:
>> 
>> On Mar  7, 2001, Christopher Faylor <[email-masked]> wrote:
>> 
>> > Basically, I think we need something like a AC_PROG_GCC_USES_MWIN32.
>> 
>> I have mixed feelings about having this macro in autoconf.  On one
>> hand, it would be kind of promoting the use of proprietary software.
>
>Speaking as a cygwin user *not* affiliated with Cygnus/Red Hat, cygwin
>is sortof schizophrenic.  On one hand, it is a totally free (speech &
>beer, libre' and gratis), GPL'ed, software platform.  On the other hand,
>it's also distributed with a proprietary license. If a developer whose
>product depends on cygwin is content to opensource his product, then he
>can use and distribute cygwin under its GPL license and we all win ---
>more libre' software for everyone.  Otherwise, the developer can
>negotiate with Cygwin for a proprietary license, and keep his own source
>closed.  Not ideal, certainly, but I've got no problem with Cygwin/Red
>Hat "punishing" folks that want to stay closed, while making a little
>money on it.  That helps those of us on the libre' side -- imposing a
>"tax" on closed-source development encourages free (libre')
>alternatives.
>
>So, by absorbing AC_PROG_GCC_USES_MWIN32, are you helping the GPL half,
>or the proprietary half?

This doesn't help "the proprietary half" very much at all since we have
control over what we distribute and are technically capable of modifying
the configure scripts to handle the -mwin32 option.

>By refusing to absorb it, are you hurting the proprietary half, or the
>GPL half?
>
>Both, of course.
>
>Which is more important?

Even if "the proprietary half" was something that Red Hat was concerned
about, I don't see why this matters.  autoconf accomodates all manners
of C compilers from all manner of vendors.

cgf

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