On Tue, 10 Feb 2004, Andrew Sullivan wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 10, 2004 at 12:06:43PM -0700, scott.marlowe wrote:
> > simple. They GPL'd their connection libs. So, if you write code that has
> > their connection libs in it, it's gotta be GPL'd.
>
> Yes. But you could fork from their old libs (which were, IIRC, LGPL)
> and work from there. Of course, you can't look at the new code
> first, but if Compaq could clean room the IBM BIOS, it's gotta be
> possible to find someone who knows nothing about this either.
But they changed their connection methods completely, so the old libs
won't talk to the 4.x database. So, you'd have to clean room implement
their 4.0 connect protocal, and make your own non-GPL connect lib by wire
sniffing it or having someone read the code, write down a white paper of
the connection protocal and then implement from there.