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Statement Regarding the Zen Programming Language

ziglang.org

71–80 of 299 posts

Re: Statement Regarding the Zen Programming Language

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of that developers work on zen would be available to the zig foundation if it were licensed GPL. If it were licensed GPL and they were violating that license they could sue in the legal system instead of writing a blog post with dubious effect.

and where would the money and time to pursue a lawsuit come from?

This is the purpose of the FSF as far as I understand. One of their goals is enforcement of the GPL

Re: Statement Regarding the Zen Programming Language

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and where would the money and time to pursue a lawsuit come from?

From the Zig foundation

that's laughable. How much do you suppose it would cost to hire an international lawyer to pursue a case in a foreign country. Even if there were enough resources, do you think that the stakeholders in the Zig Foundation would consider that to be a reasonable use of the funds that they've donated?

I certainly wouldn't. As a donor, as far as I can tell, this is as good as they could do. I'm much happier that they spend their money on code, and leave it at a statement that can grab attention, like what they have done.

Re: Statement Regarding the Zen Programming Language

#73

Hello HN and sorry for this bizarre drama! Although we have a page documenting some outlandish comments that the founder of Zig has made about Zen[0], we find it well inside of our rights to fork the MIT Licensed Zig and make a better product with commercial support. We had initial plans to support Zig in Japan, but efforts to localize Zig were not accepted and we could not take the risk of not having some sort of fo…

On whose authority was https://github.com/ziglang/zig/pull/2701 made, and what are the implications for the Zig project now that the referenced commit (https://github.com/ziglang/zig/commit/aa60d2a688c965dcccf8e2...) is part of the codebase?

Re: Statement Regarding the Zen Programming Language

#74
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's Xcode is a free download, the Swift compiler is open source. However, to become an "official" developer on the Apple platforms and publish apps you do need a paid developer account.

Hence commercial.

Signing binaries and distributing apps on the MacOS and iOS app store is commercial.

The compiler isn't commercial, unless you are saying that anything Apple makes is "commercial" because they are a for-profit business.

Re: Statement Regarding the Zen Programming Language

#75
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of commercial compilers available. Embedded platforms, Apple (100€£$/year), Windows, PGI/CUDA, IBM/xlc,game consoles,....

> Apple (100€£$/year) The compiler is not commercial and does not require a developer account.

Can you get the compiled binary into the app store? Or to end users in some other way?

Re: Statement Regarding the Zen Programming Language

#76

Hello HN and sorry for this bizarre drama! Although we have a page documenting some outlandish comments that the founder of Zig has made about Zen[0], we find it well inside of our rights to fork the MIT Licensed Zig and make a better product with commercial support. We had initial plans to support Zig in Japan, but efforts to localize Zig were not accepted and we could not take the risk of not having some sort of fo…

Can you explain why you're attempting to register a "ZIG" trademark in Japan? https://www.j-platpat.inpit.go.jp/c1800/TR/JP-2020-078615/FF... (for people that can't read japanese: click the "english" link on the top right for a translation) (edit: fixed link, I pasted another trademark registration by connectfree by mistake)

[deleted]

Re: Statement Regarding the Zen Programming Language

#77

Hello HN and sorry for this bizarre drama! Although we have a page documenting some outlandish comments that the founder of Zig has made about Zen[0], we find it well inside of our rights to fork the MIT Licensed Zig and make a better product with commercial support. We had initial plans to support Zig in Japan, but efforts to localize Zig were not accepted and we could not take the risk of not having some sort of fo…

Can you explain why you're attempting to register a "ZIG" trademark in Japan? https://www.j-platpat.inpit.go.jp/c1800/TR/JP-2020-078615/FF... (for people that can't read japanese: click the "english" link on the top right for a translation) (edit: fixed link, I pasted another trademark registration by connectfree by mistake)

Got a "System error occurred. If the error occurs repeatedly, please contact the Help Desk."

Probably taken down?

Re: Statement Regarding the Zen Programming Language

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes

then I submit that your rhetorical question at the end of your statement is flawed. Maybe consider the question: Does zig have a problem with closed-source rebrandings by companies that cause serious damage to the ecosystem outside of merely forking the code?

It was not flawed nor rhetorical, if their concern is with ecosystem damage, then the fact that the company makes a closed source superficial rebrand should have no bearing on that. Unless they indeed have a problem with companies profiting from Zig.

Re: Statement Regarding the Zen Programming Language

#79
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple (100€£$/year) The compiler is not commercial and does not require a developer account.

Can you get the compiled binary into the app store? Or to end users in some other way?

Yes? Anyone can download a binary that runs on MacOS.

Re: Statement Regarding the Zen Programming Language

#80

Hello HN and sorry for this bizarre drama! Although we have a page documenting some outlandish comments that the founder of Zig has made about Zen[0], we find it well inside of our rights to fork the MIT Licensed Zig and make a better product with commercial support. We had initial plans to support Zig in Japan, but efforts to localize Zig were not accepted and we could not take the risk of not having some sort of fo…

Can you explain why you're attempting to register a "ZIG" trademark in Japan? https://www.j-platpat.inpit.go.jp/c1800/TR/JP-2020-078615/FF... (for people that can't read japanese: click the "english" link on the top right for a translation) (edit: fixed link, I pasted another trademark registration by connectfree by mistake)

Hi Loris, thanks for the question and congratulations on your new role at the Zig Software Foundation. We originally planned on supporting Zig in Japan via support contracts and this is from that preparation. Trademarks have multiple categories and one such category is for contract work and related materials. We don't plan to use this trademark to harm Zig.
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