[Incubator] IP Checks on ArcSDE, Oracle and DB2

[Frank Warmerdam]

Jody Garnett wrote:
> Introductions:
> - David Adler - geotools DB2 module maintainer
> - Frank - OSGEO fellow helping us figure out IP issues
> - Gabriel Roldan - geotools arcsde module maintainer
> - Jody Garnett - geotools PMC, representing geotools to the OSGEO committee
> - Marc Risney - geotools oracle module maintainer
> 
> Frank we are hackers, presented with the three options the ArcSDE module 
> maintainer (Gabriel)  is going to reverse engineer the required API, and 
> create the same thing with stubs...  To actually use the code the user 
> will need to acquire the actual need jar themselves.  The situation is 
> similar to the use of C++ header files in the mapserver community as I 
> understand it.  Now that "reverse engineering" step rings alarm bells, 
> so I need a better word that does not imply that we are taking their 
> code ...
> 
> So I will say "stubbing".

Jody,

I assume the automated stubbing would be done via reflection to establish
the interface?  Rich would be the final authority, but I can't see any
IP problem with producing an interface compatible stub .jar using
reflection on their actual jar file.

Manually preparing a stub jar would also be fine, but I could see it
might be a hassle to maintain.

As far as I can tell the stubbing via reflection on both ArcSDE and Oracle
would be the way to go.

I do expect we will setup an Oracle instance on osgeo.org test servers one
of these days.  We would need to review the license terms, but my
understanding of them is that you can use their servers for free as long
as they are only used for development and testing, and not for production
use.  So we likely couldn't use those Oracle servers for "real life"
demonstration purposes for instance.

ArcSDE is a sticker situation.  I think we would basically have to purchase
a "real" license and pay support on it to have something to test against.
This makes it more appealing to do the testing within an environment that
already has ArcSDE such as a university.  I wouldn't mind paying for software
for the foundation, but my understanding is that a working ArcSDE setup is
expensive.  And I'm not keen to spend the first $20K of OSGeo money on
ESRI software.  That sends an odd message.  :-)

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGF, http://osgeo.org