The State of Python

[Grant Edwards]

On Thu, 27 Jul 2000 00:32:37 GMT, Steve Lamb <grey at despair.rpglink.com> wrote:
>On Wed, 26 Jul 2000 19:38:55 -0500, Guido van Rossum <guido at beopen.com> wrote:

>>The announcement is waiting for final negotiations about GPL
>>compatibility of the new license; BeOpen's CTO, Bob Weiner, is
>>confident that the issue will be resolved one way or another by
>>Friday.
>
>    Stupid question: Why is it everyone and their mother is coming out with a
>new open source license for their project instead of sticking with the
>established ones?

The same reasons people keep coming out with new programming
languages instead of sticking with the established ones:

 1) They can't find an established one that does what they want.

 2) It's an interesting intelectual exercise resulting in
    endless Usenet arguments where there's no chance of the
    involved parties ever agreeing.

 3) It's fun.

You probably think I'm kidding about #3, but Joe Public would
think that people who like inventing programming languages are
at least as weird as people who like to write legal stuff --
and we've got to assume that at least some of the lawyers who
practice IP law think it's fun and interesting.

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  Look into my eyes and
                                  at               try to forget that you have
                               visi.com            a Macy's charge card!