[Zope] Summary of DB Discussion

[Tres Seaver]

Christopher Petrilli <petrilli@digicool.com> wrote:

> On 11/9/99 7:45 PM, Anthony Baxter at anthony@interlink.com.au wrote:
>
> > I'm not sure that this is true - there are a number of ODBC drivers on
> > Unix, some are open source, and mxODBC interfaces them to Python. ODBC
> > drivers for databases are available in some cases.
>
> People have asked why we don't use mxODBC, a simple reading of the license
> would explain this.  The licenses are incompatible.  Alas! We'd love to hae
> someone else develop this.

Looking at the license from Marc-André's starship site
(http://starship.python.net/~lemburg/):

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Redistribution of this software or modifications thereof for commercial use 
requires a separate license which must be negotiated with the author. As a
guideline, packaging the module and documentation with other free software
will be possible without fee or royalty as described above. This license does
not allow you to ship this software as part of a product that you sell.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If Zope doesn't qualify as "free software" here (I don't know if he means only
GPL, or if Zope's "OpenSource" designation is enough), why not ask about
licensing the code compatibly for use with Zope (a la Medusa)?

Even in the worst case, I believe Zope could bundle a DA for mxODBC, and require
that the user install mxODBC separately.
================================================================================
Tres Seaver            tseaver@palladion.com      http://www.palladion.com
Palladion Software     Houston, Texas, USA        713-523-6582