Re: New summary: Binary peripheral software
Evan Prodromou writes:
> I have another question: although we keep talking about the 'binaries'
> here, we're actually talking about C source code that encapsulates the
> binaries in ASCII text as arrays of C integers.
Yes.
> Is that not 'source'?
It is the appropriate form for input to a C compiler, yes.
> If it is, and it's the source format that the copyright holder
> distributes, then it seems like it is the 'preferred source' format.
It is unlikely that it is the author's preferred form for modification,
which is what the GPL calls for. These "binary blobs" were almost
certainly produced by writing code in assembly or a high-level language and
then pushing it through an assembler or compiler. To comply with the GPL
the author should distribute what he wrote. Think of yacc and lex.
--
John Hasler
john@dhh.gt.org (John Hasler)
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI
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