--- In Firebird-general@yahoogroups.com, Philippe Makowski
<makowski@a...> wrote:

> hello, for the presentation I'll make at Dijon,
> I would like to know exactly the license status and the future of
> Fyracle ?

Fyracle has three parts, each with its own license
- modifications to the engine
- a "connector" lib, which is like the fbclient lib, but puts the
connection into oracle mode
- a stand-alone pl/sql compiler

The modifications to the engine are IDPL, a new release of the diff
is planned for next week. The connector is currently closed source,
but will be GPL. The pl/sql compiler will stay closed source.

The timing for open sourcing the connector has been difficult:

[1] Building the compiler and connector from a single source tree
speeds up development (and I want to keep evolving Fyracle quickly,
with major features added every 6 weeks). So far, we have not found
the time to reorganise the source tree and separate out the connector.

[2] Other database systems keep trying to walk in Firebird's path.
First Ingres tried to add Oracle-mode, now PostgreSQL is doing the
same thing with enterprise db. I do not want to give away Firebird's
lead prematurely.

And be assured, Firebird does have the lead: no other database can
currently match it. Postgres cannot run Compiere without heavy
modification to the Compiere code base and the 'officially supported'
Sybase still does not run Compiere reliably (and support for it might
be dropped, I hear). There is lots of very significant detail to get
right for a working oracle-mode.

Hope the above helps,

Paul