[antlr-interest] ANTLR v3 compatible with GPL?

Micheal J open.zone at virgin.net
Tue Aug 15 08:37:45 PDT 2006


Hi Denis,

> >> Hi,
> >> I have read on the antlr.org that ANTLR v3 is BSD
> licensed. Does that
> >> mean that is incompatible to the GPL and therefore can't
> be used with
> >> GPL'd applications? That would be a big drawback from
> ANTLR v2 for,
> >> probably, several apps.

> > Just out of interest, why? (as in why would this be a drawback?).
> >
> > Given that alternative codegens and runtimes can be developed for 
> > whatever targets one desires in ANTLR v3, I don't see how the ANTLR 
> > tool's license impacts on the use/licensing of any generated code 
> > and/or the [possibly custom] runtime library.

> The Problem is that the generated code still uses a runtime library, 
> which means your app still is dependent on ANTLR. If ANTLR 3 was 
> licensed under the "original" BSD license, this kind of dependence 
> wouldn't be allowed for a GPL'd program. ANTLR v2 had essentially a 
> do-what-you-want-with-it license, so dependence on ANTLR v2 
> is no issue 
> for an app licensed under the GPL.

Thanks for the clarification. In a sense it simply confirms my earlier
statement.

GPL'ed applications can have binary dependencies. Ergo, many GPL'ed apps run
on (i.e. have a dependency on) Windows, OSX and/or Java for instance. That
being the case, the dependency of a GPL'ed application on the ANTLR v3
runtime library is a non-issue as one can always distribute the runtime
library binaries with the GPL'ed application. Most applications do not [and
should not] embed the ANTLR command-line tool.

AFAICT, the source licensing issue is only relevant if the intention is to
RE-LICENSE the ANTLR v3 sources (tool and runtime) under the GPL as was
common with the ANTLR v2 sources.

Were your comments essentially about allowing the re-licensing of ANTLR v3
sources under the GPL?


Micheal

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