[Kde-games-devel] Porting my Game Construction Kit to KDE

[Mauricio Piacentini]

2009/12/12 Tadeusz Andrzej Kadłubowski <yess at hell.org.pl>:
> My feedback:

I read your answer as a bit harsh, Tadeusz :) I understand Frank is
considering how to put his new port of the engine under KDE, not the
older Windows version that is on his page. I believe we can encourage
him a bit more if we concentrate on his goals:

> a) License is incompatible with the values of the KDE community.
> We use mostly GPL-family licenses (GPL2+, LGPL2.1, etc.). Give us
> license to modify your project, distribute modified versions, and
> even make some money on it (why are people so obsessed with Non-
> Commercial clauses, anyway?)

Of course, the old license he used for the Windows-only engine can not
be used with KDE. KDE itself is GPL or LGPL, or you can look at the
accepted licenses here:

http://techbase.kde.org/Policies/Licensing_Policy

As you are talking about an engine, I assume it will be available in
the form of a library, and the recommended license as outlined by
Tadeusz is the LGPL.or BSD/MIT. Both allow commercial usage, btw.

> b) Worry about being included in the official KDE Software
> Compilation release after you make it work. At the moment you're
> still at 75% progress. Focus on the remaining 25%.

Well, Frank could request a SVN account (as detailed by Dan) and put
his code in playground/games at any stage of completion, even it he
only has an intention and a README file. I actually recommend this
route, as it encourages other developers to help him and look at his
code. But in order to enter playground your code has to be relicensed
as indicated. It also should not (ideally) come with newer
dependancies. In the case of kdegames, a dependancy on SDL is not a
good idea, for example.

> c) KDE is way more than what's released as KDE Software Compilation.
> It's the community, the infrastructure, the technology and so long.
> Think about how your project fits in it. My thoughts about it:
>
> Community: we're rather serious about software freedom.
> Technology: KDE + Qt, CMake, things like that. That might be a good
> idea for your project. Who can tell, if we didn't see your source code?
> Infrastrucuture: apart from kdegames, which is a module of the KDE
> Software Compilation, there's extragear (projects that prefer their
> own release schedule), and there's playground (experimental, unstable
> things. There be dragons, and most of my contributions). If you wish
> to host your source code within KDE infrastructure, then the
> playground is the only suitable place.

Agreed about the technology choices and playground.

>> This is a link to the original project homepage.
>> http://www.sassociations.net/cfrankb/lgck/?1
>
> This legalese lacks an autorship claim and copyright note. Besides,
> it's way too serious for a little screenshot and a download link. One
> of the benefits of the free software is that it lets you relax.

I believe this was a leftover from the old release, and will not be
translated to the new life of the project :)

BTW, Frank should definitely check out Gluon, I think. It might be
cool to collaborate on this, as some of the ideas (OO) and goals are
similar.

Regards,
Mauricio Piacentini