Re: DOM DOM binding considered harmful, discriminates against open source

Given that the bindings _are_ freely available, though not freely
modifiable, I don't see that this "discriminates against" open source. It's
equivalent to the fact that said source is written in a particular
programming language, which folks must adhere to in order to productively
share code; it's part of the standard environment that the open source
developers are buying into in order to cooperate effectively.

And it doesn't even get in the way of producing derivitive APIs... as long
as you derive them properly, by subclassing or by having objects implement
multiple interfaces, rather than by trying to change the standardized DOM
API directly.

You might want to talk to the folks at Apache and ask them how they're
handling it. I suspect that they are either (a) telling folks to obtain
these interfaces separately before compiling, or (b) modifying their open
source agreement to explain that some of what they ship is open
source/modifiable, and some is exposed source/not-modifiable, and it's the
hacker's responsibilty to read each file's header and understand which is
which.

"Open source" doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing affair. There are
multiple open-source agreements running around; the OSD is only one
instance thereof. If the one you're using is really preventing you from
doing something reasonable, it's time to consider adjusting it.

______________________________________
Joe Kesselman  / IBM Research

Received on Tuesday, 9 November 1999 17:11:13 UTC