Wireshark · Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] Update to the COPYING file

["Eric Wedel" <ewedel@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Can't resist a little comment on the spacing question.
TeX (and apparently, LaTeX) includes the \frenchspacing option
which turns off double spaces after periods.
 
http://www-h.eng.cam.ac.uk/help/tpl/textprocessing/teTeX/latex/latex2e-h
tml/frenchsp.html

Knuth spent some time investigating things like this, so
presumably non-French / European / ? languages at least at
some time did prefer double spaces.  With typewriter text
it does look better, at least to my (US) eye. 

-----Original Message-----
From: wireshark-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:wireshark-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Gerald Combs
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 3:12 PM
To: Developer support list for Wireshark
Subject: Re: [Wireshark-dev] Update to the COPYING file

Ulf Lamping wrote:
> Gerald Combs wrote:
>> Back in October there was a discussion about the fact that we have a 
>> "click-through" agreement in the Windows installer requiring that 
>> users accept the GPL.  After reading through the thread again, I've 
>> updated the summary in  the COPYING file to read:
>>
>> --------
>> Wireshark is distributed under the GNU GPL.  There are no 
>> restrictions on its use.  There are significant restrictions on its
distribution.
>>
>> Parts of Wireshark can be built and distributed as libraries.  These 
>> parts are still covered by the GPL, and NOT by the Lesser General 
>> Public License or any other license.
>>
>> If you create a combined work using all or part of Wireshark, then 
>> your combined work must be released under a license compatible with
the GPL.
>>
>> ...and don't get us started on trademarks.
>>
>> The full text of the GNU GPL follows.
>> ---------
>>
>> Sound reasonable?
>>   
> Hi!
> 
> I'm really unhappy with this preamble at all. This sounds to me like 
> we have a special variation of the GPL.
> 
> What your basically do is to personally interpret the GPL, in a way 
> that is NOT covered by the GPL, e.g.: "There are significant 
> restrictions on its distribution." This is simply misleading! 
> Distribution of the WS code from wireshark.org is *not* limited in any
way - only variants are.

There _are_ significant restrictions on its distribution -- if you
provide someone with a copy of Wireshark, even if it's straight from the
wireshark.org download site, you still have to comply with section 3 and
provide either the source code or a way to retrieve it. I regularly get
emails from people wanting to include Wireshark with a product or
service they're providing, and that requirement is always in my
response.

There are even heftier restrictions on distributing Wireshark as part of
a combined work, since the work has to be GPL-compatible.


> Adding another interpretation of the GPL doesn't make anything better 
> - in fact it make things much worse!

...then why did we have the bit of text that was there before?


> P.S: BTW: Why do you add two spaces after a dot? IMHO this is 
> incorrect, however, I'm not a native speaker/writer!

Because doing otherwise got points deducted in school. A quick search on
the subject turns up style guides that range from "always" to "if you
like" to "never":

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/writing-styl
e.html
http://www.fontsite.com/Pages/RulesOfType/ROT0997.html
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/CMS_FAQ/OneSpaceorTwo/OneSpaceorTwo0
2.html

The teachers doing the deducting are either retired or deceased now, so
it's probably safe to start using a single space after periods.
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