[Python-Dev] DRAFT: python-dev Summary for 2006-01-01 through 2006-01-15

[John J Lee]

On Fri, 27 Jan 2006, Thomas Heller wrote:
> John J Lee <jjl at pobox.com> writes:
> 
> > On Thu, 26 Jan 2006, Thomas Heller wrote:
> >> only aclocal.m4 isn't clear to me about the license.  Anyway, it could
> >> be that this file isn't needed after all - I don't know enough about the
> >> GNU toolchain to be sure.  Can anyone comment on this?
> >
> >>From 'info autoconf':
> >
> > |   The Autoconf macros are defined in several files.  Some of the files
> > | are distributed with Autoconf; `autoconf' reads them first.  Then it
> > | looks for the optional file `acsite.m4' in the directory that contains
> > | the distributed Autoconf macro files, and for the optional file
> > | `aclocal.m4' in the current directory.  Those files can contain your
> > | site's or the package's own Autoconf macro definitions (*note Writing
> > [...]
> >
> > So, I assume aclocal.m4 is under the same license as the rest of the
> > libffi you're using.
> 
> I cannot uinderstand your reasoning.  How can 'info autoconf' incluence
> the license of the aclocal.m4 file?  Or do I misunderstand something?

OK.  I now notice I was confused as to why the license issue arose in the
first place, but FWIW: My point was just that the autoconf info pages
explain (if I read them right) that one keeps one's project-specific
autoconf m4 macros in a file named 'aclocal.m4'.  It's not a file
distributed with autoconf, it's just a file naming convention, so I made
the assumption that since libffi is apparently OK to include in Python, so
must be its aclocal.m4 (even if some of the macros in the libffi
aclocal.m4 originally derived from some other project).

But I'm afraid this would fail with an AssertionError if it weren't
pseudocode:

import legally_compatible as compat
from autoconf import acfiles
from ctypes import libffi

if compat(acfiles, libffi) and compat(libffi, python):
    assert compat(acfiles, python), "John is not legally competent"

:-(


John