Not everyone can or wants to use the GPL. We don't live in an ideal, purely altruistic world.
+1
There are even a lot of other OPEN SOURCE projects with licenses (Apache, BSD) which cannot use readline because of their restricted GPL (instead of LGPL).
I'm all for replacing readline. It's an ancient, very closely linked to the everyday experience of using the command line, and not very good. I want my REPLs to have things like syntax highlighting and decent tab completion UI, and readline has positioned itself to have a monopoly on the ability to implement these things but failed to deliver. But this isn't addressing the real problem, which is that readline gets co…
I would love to see contributions improving LINENOISE NG in this direction.
Why? I assume there are good reasons for not being GPL. Redis for example is BSD. But it cannot use readline because of it is not LGPL.
GNU Readline is GPL on purpose. It's not the GNU project's fault that Redis cannot use Readline. The Redis maintainer isn't interested in protecting user freedom with copyleft, which means that Redis has to live without Readline.
Why? I assume there are good reasons for not being GPL. Redis for example is BSD. But it cannot use readline because of it is not LGPL.
GNU Readline is GPL on purpose. It's not the GNU project's fault that Redis cannot use Readline. The Redis maintainer isn't interested in protecting user freedom with copyleft, which means that Redis has to live without Readline.
Why is GPL better than BSD for example. I have the full source code of Redis and I can do any change I like. Why is copyleft per se a better solution?
Yes, it is a shame that there are so many programs out there, that do not provide good line support because of the GPL issue.
Perhaps they should use the GPL.
There are a lot of programs, which cannot use GPL for some of its restrictions, e.g. commercial software. But also in general, it is quite restrictive to have to change your softwares license just to use a certain library. Consequently, a lot of non-gpl open source software rather not uses readline than changing their license. I am very happy about any more liberally licensed alternative.
Can it switch between emacs and vi mode (like Deadline)?
Was that a typo? I've never heard of deadline and that's a pretty un-google-able word. GNU Readline has Emacs & Vi mode.
While replying to this thread, my browser keeps autocorrecting "readline" to "deadline". So a case where technology makes us write correctly spelled nonsense :).
Why? I assume there are good reasons for not being GPL. Redis for example is BSD. But it cannot use readline because of it is not LGPL.
GNU Readline is GPL on purpose. It's not the GNU project's fault that Redis cannot use Readline. The Redis maintainer isn't interested in protecting user freedom with copyleft, which means that Redis has to live without Readline.
You nailed it: I pass my days writing OSS code since 1997 and ship Redis with a license that provides the end user more freedom to do whatever she/he wants, because I'm not interested in protecting the user freedom.
This project goal is a bit more about replacing readline, but a big motivation for the original project is minimalism and trivial embeddability. It's all in the README.