[Charlug] GPL vs. LGPL

[Jason Edgecombe]

Pierre Abbat wrote:
> I'm writing a program to compute topography for land surveys, using a method 
> that is better than the one currently in use. It's a standalone executable, 
> using stdin and stdout (or cin and cout - it's in C++ and I don't yet have my 
> head around all the C++ stuff), and will read points from commonly used point 
> file formats and output contours as PostScript, DXF, and probably other 
> formats. The way to get widest use of it, though, is to integrate it into 
> Land Desktop, a commercial program which runs on top of AutoCAD and is used 
> by surveyors to draw maps. Interfacing a text program to AutoCAD is not hard. 
> The program currently has a GPL COPYING file, which is the default provided 
> by KDevelop or by the auto scripts. I'm thinking that it should be LGPL, 
> since it has to be run from Land Desktop to be of much use. What do you 
> think?
>   
It depends.

As I understand, using stdin/stdout to talk to a GPL program from 
another program is allowed.

What is your end goal? Is the goal to integrate with Land Desktop? Would 
you be upset if a company incorporated it into a non-OSS product? LGPL 
allows for use in commercial products.

Besides, if this program is entirely your own work, then you have the 
option of releasing the program under any other license later (including 
non-OSS), so starting with the more-restrictive GPL might be better. If 
everbody made a small GPL'd component of Autocad, then we wouldn't need 
autocad ;)

I would say GPL. Because it might give you a little more protection. It 
also gives a commercial company an incentive to pay you if they want a 
non-gpl license.

Jason