Excerpts from EuanM's message of 2015-12-07 13:24:49 +0100:
> If we use LGPL'd Smalltalk from Gnu-Smalltalk, we may not close the
> LGPL'd portion of the code.
> 
> Was anyone planning on closing the Unicode parts of Cuis/Pharo/Squeak?
> 
> It *is* an issue with Dolphin's .exe facility, which is one of my own
> personal use-cases.  But for Pharo/Squeak/Cuis it seems to be a
> non-issue.  If anyone has concrete evidence to the contrary, please
> raise it now.

i say this as a strong proponent of the GNU GPL, and while i personally would
not mind switch licenses, i do not believe that this is something anyone else
would want.

so the reason you can't use GNU-smalltalk code is because pharo and squeak
should remain under the MIT license.

if you are creating an add-on package then the license is a non-issue, but if
you want the package to become part of the core, then it must be licensed under
the MIT license.

in other words, sure it is legal to combine MIT and LGPL code, what is not
legal is relicensing LGPL code as MIT unless you are the author. and that is
what the warning is about. by reading the LGPL code of gnu-smalltalk you risk
accidentally copying it. 

adding LGPL code to the core thus would effectively change the license, and as
i said, i don't think anyone wants that.

randal schwartz suggests a cleanroom approach, though i personally think that
is overkill. if a cleanroom approach were really necessary than i would never
be allowed to switch jobs because once i have been working on one companys
private code i would be tainted for life, as i could accidentally reproduce the
same code in my next job.

however, either you get the GNU-smalltalk authors to relicense their unicode
classes under the MIT license, or they will need to be rewritten from scratch.

i would suggest asking them in the name of having a common code-base for all
smalltalks.

greetings, martin.

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