Re: org.omg link on Classpath homepage

[Bryce McKinlay]

On Oct 23, 2003, at 3:17 AM, Stuart Ballard wrote:

> Andrew Haley wrote:
> > Where is this software?
>
> I haven't found it yet, but see postings from Brian Jones on this list 
> where he indicates it's in OMG's FTP area (which I still can't find 
> linked from their site). I guess that you could argue that since the 
> problematic software is almost impossible to find from the link, it 
> isn't a link to non-free software, but it *claims* to be such a link, 
> and it's certainly a *reference* to non-free software - after reading 
> that part of Classpath's homepage, it's quite possible that someone 
> would independently search for OMG's implementation of these packages 
> under the impression that they were Free.

As far as I know, the OMG doesn't make any software - just 
specifications. The public classes in org.omg are automatically 
generated from CORBA interface definition language (IDL) files by an 
IDL-to-Java compiler which is specific to each ORB implementation 
(although I think the actual IDL-to-java mapping is standardized these 
days, such that code compiled for one ORB will work on another, there 
would still be differences in the glue code generated for various 
ORBs). So, all there is to download on the omg site is likely 1) 
specification documents, and 2) the IDL files. The interfaces don't 
become software until you implement them - ie write an ORB 
implementation.

IMO the link is not to non-free software: there is no software, so 
there is no problem.

If you're trying to say we shouldn't link to or implement a non-free 
spec, well, Java is a non free spec in that sense isn't it?

Regards

Bryce.