Re: MSVC runtime library license problem

[John W. Eaton]

On 23-Jan-2007, David Bateman wrote:

| So the problem is on the GPL side as msvcr70.dll is closed source and so
| can't be linked with a GPL program.. If that is a valid argument then
| any compiler that has a support library that is closed source can not be
| used to distribute GPL software. Does Intel's icc for example link
| against a support library? Does that prevent distribution?

Yes, if the support library is not GPL compatible and is not a part of
the OS.  

| I'd hate to see the MSVC build thrown out, though I
| suppose we might go back to a mingw build if we have to...

Yes, I think that is the best solution.

You can still build Octave with MSVC for yourself, but you can't
distribute it.

As I see it, much of the work that Michael has done has been to make
Octave work better on Windows systems generally, not just for MSVC.
So I don't think that having to use the MinGW compiler to build a
version to distribute causes a lot of trouble.

jwe