From: Daniel Carrera <dcarrera@...>
Date: 2003-04-12T01:45:48+09:00
Subject: Re: Two questions

On Sat, Apr 12, 2003 at 12:28:55AM +0900, Steve Adams wrote:
> What restrictions does the Ruby license place on the construction and sale
> of commercial products?

None really.  It is an error to think that open source licenses prohibit 
commercial products.

Be it as it may, I suppose that you are referring to the ability to 
conceal the source code.  Ruby comes with a dual license.  One is the GPL 
and the other is an MIT-style license which (as I understand it) allows 
you to distribute a modified version of Ruby and keep the changes secret.

I can't imagine why you'd want to do that.  So I suppose that what you 
*really* want is to write programs in Ruby and keep the source secret.  In 
that case, you are (as far as I know) asking the wrong question.  Ruby's 
license applies only to Ruby's source itself.  It says absolutely nothing 
about the Ruby programs you write.  There are no restrictions on that 
front whatsoever.

> Is there a way to "compile" the developed Ruby code in a product so that the
> source code isn't accessible to the end user?

If I may ask, why would you want to keep the user from the source? I'm 
curious.

The only way that (I am currently aware) of doing this is to use the 
Exerb package (it's in RAA, I don't have the exact page).  Exerb will turn 
your Ruby code into a Windows executable.  Exerb is going to make a very 
large executable.

I think that eventually Ruby will support the Parrot virtual machine.  So 
there might be a "compiler" then.

I hope this helps,
-- 
Daniel Carrera
Graduate Teaching Assistant.  Math Dept.
University of Maryland.  (301) 405-5137