[XML-SIG] Specializing DOM exceptions

[Greg Stein]

On Sun, Nov 26, 2000 at 08:18:47PM +0100, Martin v. Loewis wrote:
> > Cool!  Thanks for the pointer.  I had no idea Python provided a
> > gettext work-alike.  Hopefully it uses GNU gettext if available for
> > maximum performance and interop, but even if it doesn't, it's at
> > least as good as my framework.
> 
> It is compatible with GNU gettext on the API and binary file format
> level. The idea of linking to the C library's gettext was rejected - I
> forgot what the exact reason was.

Licensing. The gettext library is GPL'd. (not LGPL!). If Python were to link
with it, then it would force Python into the GPL.

This is the same reason that readline is not enabled by default. It requires
specific, user action.

There is an open question of whether source code that is designed to link
with a specific GPL'd library falls under the GPL or not. In other words,
since we have specific calls to the readline library (although disabled by
default), we could potentially fall under the GPL. Personally, I think that
is hooey, but the "real" answer is to design your hooks such that any of
several libraries could be linked in; at that point, you aren't building
your app to work with a specific GPL'd library and you're safe.

The GPL is such a bother...

Cheers,
-g

-- 
Greg Stein, http://www.lyra.org/