On Monday 15 June 2009, Xiaofan Chen wrote: > >> Yet, it must be noted that libftd2xx is dynamically linked on Linux. > >> If the Windows version is also a DLL then it is arguable whether or not > >> they are already linked when the OpenOCD binary is distributed. > > > > One might argue that, yes. Safer IMO not to though ... especially > > if a D2XX.dll (or whatever) is distributed with the OpenOCD binary. > > > > I am not so keen in the discussion of licensing issues.
Few of us are lawyers. Some of us have spent time with them though, talking about such issues. > But I think > the FTDI D2XX library is a DLL (ftd2xx.dll). It is also distributed > through the Windows D2XX driver package and installed when the > driver is installed. So there is no need to distribute this DLL for the > OpenOCD binary under Windows. That's irrelevant to whether or not distributing a version of OpenOCD which *expects* that library violates the license. Go back and read that FAQ entry I referenced before: http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLIncompatibleLibs Especially: If you want your program to link against a library not covered by the system library exception, you need to provide permission to do that. The FTDI code is such a library, and there is currently no such permission. End of (non-pointless) argument. > http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/D2XX.htm > http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/CDM/CDM%202.04.16%20WHQL%20Certified.zip > > So in this case, there is no issue to use D2XX for Windows, right? Wrong. > Under Linux, I am not so sure. I'm sure. The legal issues are the same in either case. > Anyway, libftdi and libusb both > work under Linux, so there is no real need to use libftd2xx > under Linux now that Nicolas says that there is no real performance > gain to use libftd2xx under Linux. The serial engine is better-documented than the bitbanging support. If OpenOCD needed to use e.g. an ft232 (no serial engine) instead of an ft2232 (with SPI/JTAG/... serial engine), that could make a difference. But ... we don't. _______________________________________________ Openocd-development mailing list Openocd-development@lists.berlios.de https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/openocd-development
