[OSGeo-Discuss] Re: GeoExt: call for participation

[Roald de Wit]

Hi Bart, Cameron and lists,

Now it's time to de-lurk I guess. I've been subscribed to these lists 
for some time now and this is my first post.
OSGeo Discuss members: this is a discussion started by Cameron Shorter, 
2 posts down in this email.

As Cameron points out: for our organisation the GPL (v3) license is too 
restrictive.

Bart, we have looked at the exceptions as pointed out in the URL you 
provided [1]. Unfortunately section 2.e says:

    "Your Extension can reasonably be considered to be adding to or
    modifying standard functionality of the Library for software
    development purposes and not an independent and separate Application
    in itself."

This would surely cause our applications (proprietary or not) to fail to 
comply with ExtJS' exception.

Trying to convince the GeoExt community to move to another JS library 
seems to me like advising protestants to become catholics. There is a 
place for both and in my personal opinion: no need to convert anone from 
their belief to another.

In order to attract a broader audience I send this email to the OSGeo 
discuss list as well. We would like to know if there are others out 
there that share our interest in the GeoExt development and our concerns 
in regards to the licensing issues that surround it.

Is there room for another project that wants to achieve a similar goal 
as GeoExt but uses a less restrictively licensed JS library (like 
jQuery's dual GPL/MIT license) and would there be interest from the 
OSGeo-minded community to join forces to achieve that goal?

Kind regards,

Roald

[1]  http://extjs.com/products/ux-exception.php

--
Roald de Wit
Software Engineer
roald.dewit at lisasoft.com

Commercial Support for Open Source GIS Software
http://lisasoft.com/LISAsoft/SupportedProducts/



bartvde at osgis.nl wrote:
> Hi Cameron,
>
> your second point was also discussed at the BOF in Capetown. There was
> talk of starting a general project integrating more than 1 javascript UI
> library with OpenLayers, but at the BOF it was decided not to do this. We
> are "limiting" ourselves to ExtJS, and GeoExt is meant for that. Other
> projects can startup to integrate OpenLayers with other UI libs.
>
> Wrt your first point (license), it seems there might be an exception for
> GeoExt based on:
>
> http://extjs.com/products/ux-exception.php
>
> See also this thread:
> http://lists.opengeo.org/geoext/archive/2008/11/1225900443068
>
> Also you can always buy a commercial ExtJS license.
>
> This week's meeting (wednesday) will discuss the license:
> http://www.geoext.org/trac/geoext/wiki/meetings/2008_12_16
>
> Best regards,
> Bart
>
>   
>> Hello geoext developers,
>>
>> As a manager at LISAsoft, we are interested in the progress of GeoExt.
>> In particular, I'm impressed with the line up of developers floating on
>> this email list.
>>
>> However, we are concerned about the commercial unfriendly GPL license of
>> ExtJS. Especially based on the track record of the ExtJS owners who have
>> a track record of changing and restricting the license to their software.
>> See: http://pablotron.org/?cid=1556
>>
>> An alternative library to ExtJS is JQuery. LISAsoft developers have been
>> working with JQuery recently and are reporting good results. If others
>> are interested, we have a number of widgets based on JQuery which we
>> have developed, or are about to develop, which we can incorporate into a
>> MapFish/GeoExt type library if there is a desire for this.
>> My developers are continually singing the praises of JQuery, and the
>> strength of the community behind it. Feel free to ask questions of them
>> if you wish.
>>
>> So ultimately,
>> How committed is everyone to GPL? Are people prepared to use a less
>> restrictive license?
>>
>> How committed is everyone to ExtJS? Have you committed too much effort
>> toward ExtJS to consider using something else?
>>
>>
>>
>> Cedric Moullet wrote:
>>     
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> You have probably heard about GeoExt. GeoExt is a client side library
>>> based on ExtJS and OpenLayers. The creation of this library has been
>>> initiated at Foss4G 2008. www.geoext.org is now online and several
>>> discussions already occured on the geoext mailing list, mainly between
>>> OpenGeo & Camptocamp teams and also with others.
>>>
>>> The main goal of GeoExt is to provide an easy to use library for
>>> building rich web mapping GUI.
>>>
>>> We'd like to know if persons are interested to contribute and/or
>>> participate to the creation of this library. If this is the case, please
>>> enter your name on the following WIKI page
>>> http://www.geoext.org/trac/geoext/wiki/CallParticipation or send me an
>>> email back.
>>>
>>> As initial contribution, the existing MapFish client code will be
>>> transferred into GeoExt. The MapFish project will use GeoExt library.
>>>
>>> We look forward for your participation in this library.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Cédric
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>> --
>> Cameron Shorter
>> Geospatial Systems Architect
>> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
>> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>>
>> Think Globally, Fix Locally
>> Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
>> http://www.lisasoft.com
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Archive: http://lists.opengeo.org/geoext/archive/2008/12/1229337325165
>> To unsubscribe send an email with subject "unsubscribe" to
>> geoext at lists.opengeo.org.  Please contact geoext-manager at lists.opengeo.org
>> for questions.
>>
>>     
>
>
>
>
> --
> Archive: http://lists.opengeo.org/geoext/archive/2008/12/1229338579626
> To unsubscribe send an email with subject "unsubscribe" to geoext at lists.opengeo.org.  Please contact geoext-manager at lists.opengeo.org for questions.
>