Re: How to make GNU software

[Wolfgang Sourdeau <wolfgang ultim net>]

La plume légère, à Sun, Nov 26, 2000 at 09:43:01AM -0800, heure d'inpiration,
Charles Iliya Krempeaux écrivait en ces mots:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> What people often call GNU software is software that has been released under a
> special license: the GNU GPL.  You can find out more about the GNU GPL at...
> 
>   http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

That is not exact. A GNU program is a free program whose author
has taken arrangement with the Free Software Foundation to make it part
of the GNU Project. This arrangement implies to fulfill some conditions such
as:
- not make any reference to non-free software or non-free documentation;
- release the program under the GNU GPL and its documentation under the GNU FDL;
- adapt this program to the other GNU programs as much as possible;
- respect certain coding standards (the "GNU Coding Standards");
- release documentation in the texinfo format;

The respect of those conditions is quite flexible. For example, GNOME is a
GNU project but its documentation format is based on sgml/docbook.

Please refer to http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/categories.html for more
informations on the different kind of software and free software.


Wolfgang
-- 
A chicken is an egg's way of producing more eggs.