Questions in Respect to Code Release

[mar]

So my first question is in respect to licensing. I want to release my code under GPL however I found out there are 3 versions of GPL, is there a reason not to use the newest version?

I'm not a fan of GPL. It's like a poisoned apple, once you taste it, you can't get rid of it.
You may consider other licensing options, there's a plenty of truly open and free licenses out there.

[syzygy]

So my first question is in respect to licensing. I want to release my code under GPL however I found out there are 3 versions of GPL, is there a reason not to use the newest version?

I'm not a fan of GPL. It's like a poisoned apple, once you taste it, you can't get rid of it.

Sure you can, just release the same code under some other license.

Only if you start accepting contributions from others will you get stuck with that license, but the same applies to other licenses.

[jdart]

I think Martin means: GPL gives users of your code few choices. If you use it and distribute the results, then the combined code has to be GPL too.

Licenses such as BSD or MIT give the consumer more choices, including the ability to distribute code w/o requiring source publication.

--Jon

[syzygy]

I think Martin means: GPL gives users of your code few choices. If you use it and distribute the results, then the combined code has to be GPL too.

True, but this might be exactly what the OP wants to achieve. The "consumer" of the code might not like it, but it is the copyright holder that gets to choose.

[jdart]

True, and quite a few people consider this attribute of GPL to be a positive feature. But I am not fond of GPL myself.

--Jon

[jorose]

After some thought I've decided to opt for trying to cross compile for Windows, mostly for the learning experience. If there is any interest for a natively compiled Windows binary I will probably ask for help as I don't feel particularly comfortable doing productive things on Windows.

[jorose]

As I'm not actually expecting anybody to develop anything on my code basis or even integrate any of my code (there are much better coders writing open source engines) I decided I will use GPL, but might release later versions (or rerelease an existing version) under less strict licenses if anybody interested in using the code should ask for it.

[jorose]

Thanks for the reply! I don't think I will copy paste your code, but it should prove useful in understanding the problem you mentioned.

[jorose]

Thank you!

I will give links in the header file and mention it in the readme. I will probably write a small entry for my engine on the CPW, but it might be a while before I get around to doing that.

[jorose]

A huge thank you! This post helped me more than you probably realize. Many of your individual points were commented on by others and I tried to reply there. On the topic of a makefile I decided I would write a very simple one, along the lines of the shell script variant you mentioned.