Re: [Themis-dev] Another dev? Another code base we can use?

[Raymond C. R. <z3r...@bb...>]

Ar...@co... wrote:
> I have emailed the developer of the following project:
> http://uziproject.free.fr/main.html
>
> The person evaluated Themis a while back, but decided to roll his own when he found Themis lacking in many areas.
>
> Based on the front page, it shows he's done work on HTML, CSS and the DOM.
>
> In our email, he has suggested that Themis should just start from his code base instead of trying to resurrect the Themis project and improve on it.  Now, I don't really know whether this is such a good idea or not, so can some of you check it out? :)
>
>   
I don't mind that he found Themis lacking, especially since it has been 
incomplete for so many years. I don't mind that he started his own 
browser. But I find it insulting that he would suggest that we should 
start from scratch on his code base instead of resuming work on Themis. 
Nothing in or about Themis has ever been declared anything other than 
"alpha", which by itself indicates incomplete or buggy. It looks to me 
that he has as far to go from the non-rendering direction as we do in 
towards rendering, if not more.
> Some thoughts....
> As I explained in the email, there are actually several things going for Themis:
> * Themis has a great design concept by using a threaded messaging system
> * Themis uses or plans to use Haiku APIs and widgets
> * Themis has no need to be cross-platform, but it must take every advantage of Haiku for performance and design.
> In other words, Themis must be desiged to take advantage of Haiku.
>
> Ok, so it'd probably be crazy to consider starting from a different code base.  However, I also think about the fact that many aspects of Themis need re-working, even the all important messaging system.  Considering all the work to be done, maybe it could be of use to bring together to best of both projects.  Then again, the project may not be what Themis needs, but I don't really know...  So, maybe some of you who know these things can take a look and see what to make of it? :)  Perhaps evaluated from the perspective of if it will produce a better browser in the long run?
>
> BTW, the project is GPLed, but that was only because he used a GPLed renderer.  He wrote the rest of the code, so he'd be willing to change the license on his code.
>   
It's my understanding of GPL (and I may be completely wrong) but once 
something has been GPLed it can't be unGPLed. It can have a second 
"compatible" license added, or if it was originally something else, GPL 
can be added to it, but it can't go from GPL to BSD/MIT, as far as I 
know. Personally, I'm not willing to make Themis GPL for his project's 
sake. Open source may be open source, but GPL and MIT are a world apart 
in my opinion, and I also have no intention of throwing out my work so 
that I can base the project around UZI. That would hurt my ego too much, 
and more importantly, it would feed his entirely too much.

Raymond