[reportlab-users] using reportlab derivatives

[will at phototropia.org]

Friends:
     Apologies as fork probably isn't the right word.  I keep stumbling on
so many things that use pdfgen, and TRML uses a link to RML's
commercial manual as for its manual.  I also did not receive a
response from an email to the TRML folks asking about this.  I tried
to ask the question in broader terms for others like us who are vague
on etiquette in the open source world.  From asking around, this is
what seems to be good etiquette:
     If one is adding to or planning to fork an open source app, they
should first contact the developers not just to inform them, but
because you may be bringing something they would want to add to their
project and a fork/separate app isn't needed.  When a separate app
using another's main code is released, one should contact the
developers again to offer to provide a link and as a courtesy.  This
helps the original developers to  know how their code is being used.
     This is just from a quick poll of my Geek friends, sorry again for
using the term fork improperly,

Will

>> I don't think TRML is a "fork" because I don't think Reportlab RML has
>> been
>> released by reportlab.com ... have you ? I think TRML is an independent
>> implementation, and yes, the author is unresponsive (atleast to me).
>
> RML is still closed source.  Our core business involves document servers
> priced at USD 25k and up as part of enterprise projects, and it would be
> almost impossible to keep selling these if we open-sourced all the key
> components.
>
> TRML is an independent partial implementation of the RML specification,
> and my main complaint about it is that they don't clearly describe it as
> such or provide support for their own users, so people
> end up asking here and we can't help them.
>
> I am not aware of any forks.
>
> We thave a few 'branches' but that's our problem ;-)  More on that later.
>
> - Andy
>
>
>
>
>
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