Re: A plea for dynamically loadable extension modules

[dhruva <dhruvakm@gmail.com>]

Hi,

On 8/19/07, Leo <sdl.web@gmail.com> wrote:
> But is it OK to include this patch¹ in Emacs? It allows C DEFUN
> functions to be placed in external libraries and dynamically loaded when
> they were needed.

I personally feel it would be an extremely nice feature to have the
above functionality in Emacs. If the concern is to make sure such
libraries are released under GPL, I propose the following method:

1. All dynamic libraries loaded dynamically (through explicit call to
LoadLibrary/dlopen) must expose a function 'IsGPLed'
2. In main Emacs, we load it and look for that function
(GetProcAdderess/dlsym) and execute if found. It could return a
'bool'.
3. The absence of the function or a false return can prevent loading
that extension library
4. We could cover the meaning and legal bindings of having 'IsGPLed'
somewhere in the license and it is the responsibility of the
library/owner to make sure it is completely covered under GPL if the
function is implemented to return 'true' and Emacs does not take any
responsibility beyond checking for the function and it's return value
and no more.

Would this be a feasible approach?

-dky

-- 
Dhruva Krishnamurthy
Contents reflect my personal views only!