[Squeakfoundation]New mailing list request for Bellesqueak

[Paul Fernhout]

Cees (and other list members)-

Just to show how wishy-washy I can be, since the Bellesqueak list hasn't
been set up yet, after another night of reflection, I've decide to
change the licensing of the Bellesqueak charter to be GNU GPL for the
code and GNU Free Documentation License for the mailing list, WIKI
contents, and other non-code content contributed to the project.

I am doing this in part so I can easily incorporate parts of GNU
Lightning,
  http://www.gnu.org/software/lightning/
and while I am at it, raid parts of GNU Smalltalk and GNU Forth and
maybe MzScheme to give Bellesqueak a jumpstart. 

One might ask why not just add to GNU Smalltalk? 
  http://www.gnu.org/software/smalltalk/
Well there are many Squeakish themes I would like to explore in code and
in community discussions, and I think I would prefer to use Squeak to
develop the infrastructure (making Bellesqueak for the time being sort
of a Squeak application). Presumably some of the Bellesqueak work could
go into GNU Smalltalk, so one might think of this as a
Squeak-GNUSmalltalk hybrid, with various other things thrown in.
Ultimately, I'm interested in a ground up rewrite that may not be quite
compatible with conventional Smalltalk, so I feel a new project is in
order for now as opposed to an enhancing GNU Smalltalk.

Hopefully, some people who have contributed things to Squeak under the
more-restrictive-than-BSD Squeak License might be willing if asked to
also allow them also to be put under the much more restrictive GPL.
Obviously since the Squeak License is not GPL-compatible, this means the
Bellesqueak code can't go into the Squeak base as is. However, on an
individual basis, Bellesqueak contributors can decide to dual license
their contributions under the Squeak license upon request or announce
such dual licensing on the list (for such modules which they are the
sole author).

Also, I am making the change as on further thinking I realize that what
I have in mind will get done faster being able to raid both the GPL and
BSD code bases. And ultimately, for the Bellesqueak effort,
commercialization of the result in a classical way isn't a major goal
(for me). 

Somehow I think this project will just be more fun for me with results
put under the GPL -- accepting that many people will also be turned off
by the GPL licensing (including the implication applications built on
Bellesqueak will likely also be under the GPL). However, I think other
people will like the GPL licensing aspect. And practically speaking,
people who might be interested in major commercialization of Squeak
projects for the most part are using other systems right now (or use
Squeak in such a way as a server or tool that Bellesqueak being GPL
won't affect them much). It seems most people who have stuck with Squeak
so far have done so for reasons more of science and research than
commercialization, so I see the GPL as being compatible with that intent
(especially since ideas in GPL code could always be re-expresed in other
ways under other licenses).

Practically speaking, I realized if I want to use a reasonably robust
cross-platform BSD licensed system right now for commercial
applications, I could use Python. Obviously Python lacks some of the
great themes and insights Squeak has (keyword syntax, morphs,
transparency, being written in itself, a certain GUI portability
mindset) which to an extent need to be engineered in from the ground up. 

Also, while I do sell a couple of shareware products, and might like to
use something like Bellesqueak for a base for them down the road, I'm
comfortable enough with the idea of begging :-) that I could imagine
those products released under the GPL and still trying to raise funding
with nag screens (especially as we ourselves are thinking of morphing
entirely into a non-profit organization for continuing such efforts).

So to summarize, I realized that if my intent is mostly to have fun with
Bellesqueak and do some nice aesthetic programming, GPL is good enough
and provides some codebase advantages. For example, I already have an
email out to the author of GNU Lightning asking if I can use some of the
documentation for the instruction set under the BSD license -- this
decision eliminates the need to get his permission to use such ideas or
documents as part of Bellesqueak. I can just go forward.

So here is a rewrite of the Bellesqueak mailing list charter with that
in mind (and clarifying a couple other points I got questions on):

===========

The intent of the Bellesqueak list is to support a community process
which creates, discusses, uses, and maintains a cross-platform computing
environment and knowledge management system inspired by Squeak Smalltalk
called Bellesqueak. The focus of Bellesqueak will be on transparency,
robustness, complexity management, and clear licensing -- to support the
doing of good deeds such as education, sustainable development, and
ensuring humanity survives Vernor Vinge's Singularity in some form.
  [For more on the singularity, see: http://hanson.gmu.edu/vi.html 
   or my posting at: http://www.bootstrap.org/dkr/discussion/0126.html ] 

The entire system will be built from the ground up in a public way, with
all code for the core submitted through this Bellesqueak mailing list
and subject to the Bellesqueak license. The license of all discussions
and code contributions made to this list or related WIKI will be under
the GNU Free Documentation license Version 1.1 or GNU General Public
License Version 2 respectively (so don't contribute postings or code
here if you don't want your effort to be under this license or if they
legally can't be put under this license). 

URL links posted to the list pointing to work under other licenses shall
not be construed to mean those other works are under the Bellesqueak
license, and it is acceptable on the list to discuss other works
compatible with or derived from Bellesqueak, even if the other works
themselves are not under the same license (remembering that all
contributions to the list itself including such discussions are under
the Bellesqueak license). 

At some point, significant contributors to this list may be asked to a
sign a document along the lines stating their contributions are original
(or otherwise made with permission) and are allowed by any employers and
are submitted under the Bellesqueak (GPL or GFDL) licenses, and at some
point all future mailing list participants may be asked to sign such a
document in order to contribute or continue contributing to the mailing
list. 

To be clear, no code may be taken directly from Squeak and submitted to
the Bellesqueak list without permission from the original authors to put
it under the Bellesqueak license. Note that clearly defined modules
developed by others under licenses easily compatible with the
Bellesqueak license (like the MIT X license or in the public domain or
under the LGPL or GPL) may from time to time be accepted into the
Bellesqueak project at the discretion of the community. Likewise, for
scaffolding, Bellesqueak may at times rely on a variety of tools or
libraries which may or may not be under the Bellesqueak license, and in
those cases the licensing distinctions of such components must be
clearly noted.

For purposes of managing the future of Bellesqueak, I (Paul Fernhout)
hereby declare myself "benevolent Senior Beau for as long as I wish" :-) 
of the Bellesqueak community mailing list and claim ownership of the
Bellesqueak trademark (like Linus Torvalds claims ownership of Linux)
with my intent being to ensure the quality of whatever is called
"Bellesqueak". [For reference, a Beau in square dancing is the left hand
partner of the Belle, and I picked Beau over "dictator" because of
previous complaints on use of that term (rightly so). One may think of
my role as final arbitrator of the quality of "Bellesqueak". See also:
http://www.ceder.net/def/beaubelle.php3 ]

Naturally, anyone may at any time take the contents of the Bellesqueak
system or mailing list and, respecting the license, fork it under a new
name if they have significantly divergent opinions of how it should
proceed.

The Bellesqueak code will be under the GNU General Public License
Version 2, viewable here:
  http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

All other documentation, mailing list discussions, and other content
related to the main project will be under the GNU Free Documentation
license Version 1.1, viewable here:
  http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html

===========

Of course, now that Bellesqueak is going down what some might call the
path to the dark side [Paraphrasing Yoda: Is the GPL better? No, but
quicker, easier, more fun...] I will respect any strong suggestions here
saying the project should just be hosted at the FSF instead of through
Cees's good graces and by extension the Squeak Foundation.

-Paul Fernhout
Kurtz-Fernhout Software 
=========================================================
Developers of custom software and educational simulations
Creators of the Garden with Insight(TM) garden simulator
http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com