SmallEiffel license

[dark@xs4all.nl (Richard Braakman)]

I'm afraid that SmallEiffel violates its own license.

Background: SmallEiffel is an Eiffel compiler written in Eiffel.
It can compile Eiffel code to C or to Java bytecode.  It is
distributed under the GPL, but all that is distributed is the
generated C code.

>From the SmallEiffel FAQ:

  A03: Is it possible to have the complete Eiffel source of SmallEiffel?
   No. The SmallEiffel distribution already includes, in the library, a
   lot of the Eiffel source files used to write the SmallEiffel compiler
   itself. For example, the class DICTIONARY is the one used by the
   SmallEiffel compiler to store features and all kinds of symbolic
   information. Classes FILE_TOOLS, STD_FILE_READ and STD_FILE_WRITE are
   also used by the compiler to read Eiffel source code and to write and
   compare C files. The full C source code of the compiler is free.
   SmallEiffel may one day become a commercial product (if someone wants
   to buy it :-). Even if SmallEiffel becomes a commercial product, the C
   source file will remain under the GNU licence and its new owner will
   have to give the C code of further releases.

However, the GPL defines "source code" as "the preferred form of the
work for making modifications to it".  This is certainly the Eiffel
code, and not the C code.  To illustrate, here is a small function
from the generated C code:

T36 X631storage(void *C){
int id=((T0*)C)->id;
if (id <= 247) {
return ((T36)((((T247*)((T247*)C)))->_storage/*W4*/));
} else {
return ((T36)((((T263*)((T263*)C)))->_storage/*W4*/));
}}

(Yes, it's all like this.)

Of course, the author is free to release the program under any terms
he or she pleases.  But I'm afraid that it is not possible to for any
redistributor to meet the terms of the GPL, since the source code as
defined by the GPL is not available.  Thus, we cannot legally put
it on the Debian ftp site at all.


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