Smalltalk Cookbook

Andrew C. Greenberg werdna at mucow.com
Sat Oct 12 15:30:45 UTC 2002


I think such a thing would be useful and a great service to the 
community.  Sorry to be a wet blanket, but I have to comment about a 
dull, non-tech issue.

However, I would have to refrain from posting any code there, because 
Cees seeks to bind all code posted there under the GNU Free 
Documentation license.  A cookbook is, primarily, a library of code 
rather than documentation, and the provisions of GFD, while not so bad 
for content, appears viral into the derived code -- particularly 
because:

"A "Modified Version" of the Document means any work containing the
Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with
modifications and/or translated into another language."

As we have discussed, it is my considered view that unspecialized viral 
licenses are unsuitable for an image-based OO environment, such as 
Squeak and many other Smallalk derivatives.  Unless we want to shift 
from a primarily BSD-like Squeak style license to a primarily GNU-like 
license (and get permission of existing licensors to make the switch), 
I believe that such a cookbook is a recipe for problems down the road.

We already have quite enough licensing cruft in our image.  For my 
part, I see absolutely no need whatsoever to restrict use and reuse of 
a freely distributed web-available Squeak cookbook -- suggest losing 
the license anyway.

BTW: If Cees does insist on a licensing deal to play, the "click-to" as 
opposed to "click-through" form of "click-wrap" has been held 
unenforceable in New Jersey and various other jurisdictions -- 
something more would be required.  "Click-through" on the other hand, 
seems quite enforceable.

On Friday, October 11, 2002, at 03:53 AM, Cees de Groot wrote:

> In response to someone with a good idea on comp.lang.smalltalk (I'll 
> wait here
> a couple of seconds while you look surprised ... ok now?), I've setup 
> a Swiki
> that's dedicated to the development (and deployment) of a Smalltalk 
> Cookbook:
>  http://swiki.squeakfoundation.org/cookbook
> It is meant to be - as much as possible - dialect-independent, so 
> please,
> please please: if you want to add to it, start with the dreary 
> Collections
> recipes before adding Morphic chapters ;-)
>
> -- 
> Cees de Groot               http://www.cdegroot.com     
> <cg at cdegroot.com>
> GnuPG 1024D/E0989E8B 0016 F679 F38D 5946 4ECD  1986 F303 937F E098 9E8B
> Cogito ergo evigilo
>
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