Hi Tom,
> > I want to write an application licensed under the GPL which will run
> > on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. Since my application is going to use
> > configuration files, I looked for a format already in use, so I would not
> > have to reinvent the wheel. I found the plist format used by Apple and I
> > like it.
> >
> > But since my application will have to run on platforms other than Mac
> > OS X, I will need to implement my own plist parser, so the question
> > arises, what license the plist format is bound to? Can I read and write
> > Apple-style plists from GPL'ed code and can I include the link to the DTD
> > ("http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd";) into the plists my
> > application creates?
>
> Obviously I cannot give a definitive answer.
I completely understand that.
> However, Apple's Core Foundation property-list management API is all
> included with Darwin. That is, all of the code for CFPropertyList*
> functions, along with the CF data types needed for property lists, is
> open-sourced under terms of the APSL. I'd wager that's your answer
> right there, and probably the easiest solution as well. Not only could
> you use the plist format, you could use it with Apple's own source
> code. No need to even bother with your own parser, Apple will give you
> theirs.
>
> It's at Apple's Darwin site, and at www.opendarwin.org. Look under
> src/CoreFoundation/.
Thanks for the pointer. This is indeed the answer I was looking for. If Apple
gives away plist parsing code under an OSI-approved open source license, I
assume they agree to the format being open. However, I cannot use the code
from the OpenDarwin project, because the APSL is not compatible with the GPL
and I have to use GPL code in my app. But that's no big deal, since my app
already has a XML parser and the plist format is quite easy to parse and even
easier to write to.
> But again, I'm not a lawyer...
Me neither. And proud of it. ;)
Thanks again.
Michael Roitzsch
--
There are 10 types of people:
Those who understand binary and those who don't.
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