Re: Generating VST headers
Hi Javier,
sorry for the delay, but I was on holiday and I'm still recovering the
old mails..
|--==> Javier Serrano Polo writes:
JSP> Hi, again.
JSP> You may have heard about VST and its non-free headers. I'm using a free
JSP> program that optionally supports that technology and, of course, it'd be
JSP> nice to have that support in main.
JSP> I believe reverse engineering is legal, even a common practice (so I've
JSP> read in some messages in this list). But I don't think Steinberg
JSP> (copyright owner) would be very happy. They don't want to give away the API.
JSP> I should clarify that I'm not trying to make the whole technology
JSP> available, just the necessary bits to allow my program work. This
JSP> couldn't be used to move fst to main (perhaps, it could).
JSP> Oh, that reminds me. Free Ekanayaka, did you get explicit permission
JSP> from Torben Hohn? You know that Steinberg headers aren't like a Java
JSP> compiler, don't you? GPL still applies.
I've downloaded the VST development kit from the Steinberg site, and
accepted the use conditions. Then I've built the fst package (as you
would compile any other VST plugin using the Steinberg development
kit) and uploaded it to non-free. From my understanding this is
perfectly legal, as is legal to distribute VST plugins compiled with
the VST SDK.
JSP> Oh no, it's depending on LASH. I'm afraid you didn't get it. I read
JSP> through their mail archives (fst archives), Paul Davis (co-author)
JSP> argued LASH dependency was enough reason to not grant exceptions nor
JSP> allow binary distributions.
Mmmh, I'm not sure to get this point, please would you elaborate?
JSP> By the way, my program doesn't use LASH so that reason doesn't apply.
JSP> Got no answer from them.
JSP> I'm sorry I had to bring this up. If it helps, dssi-vst does have GPL
JSP> exceptions to allow binary distribution.
We could probably upload that too then.
JSP> Back to my subject, I already wrote a header to make the Linux parts
JSP> work. Of course, it crashes when connecting to VST: constants need the
JSP> correct values, class members the correct offsets...
JSP> I guess I can't ask a developer who can use the official headers to
JSP> substitute the constant names with numbers and fill classes with char
JSP> arrays. It would be so easier to get the header.
JSP> If I finish this file (in a far far future), could it be included in main?
I think so, but I'll let more knowledgeable people answer this.
JSP> Knowing that fst shouldn't be there, it wouldn't be much ethical to use
JSP> it to obtain additional information, would it?
Ciao,
Free
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