On Friday, 29 October 2021 at 10:09:32 UTC+1 karsten wrote:
Hello,
> Assuming the other devs agree (we'll give it a look over),
> is it OK to add it to FLTK itself and its LGPL license?
> However, I notice that the code uses exceptions and templates,
Oh, I didn't expect there to perhaps be interest to add it into FLTK itself. Otherwise i probably would have avoided the templates. Again, I used them to make it as easy as possible for others to drop into a project. But if Fl_Flow is added to FLTK anyway then this avoids that problem entirely.
As I noted in another post, I (personally, others may disagree!) am less bothered about template code than about the use of exceptions, as fltk has "traditionally" excluded exception handling from the build.
That said, some implementations of the STL make use of exception handling internally and can therefore cause exception support to be pulled into the build anyway, which is a problem I've hit a few times. FWIW, the MS version of STL seems to be OK in this regard, others less so - though I am led to believe (i.e. have not checked recently!) that more recent gcc STL code is now exception-free, as it were... This was certainly not always the case.
To be fair, the nice thing about this layout system is that it isn't too complex or large to write. If people do decide that they would like to add it into FLTK itself, I can happily de-templatize it. I do use std::string, std::exception and std::vector but these can also be replaced if necessary. Their use is fairly minor.
It might be more a "de-STL-ize" thing I suspect... other uses of templates that are "local" are probably fine, I'd guess, And "de-exception-ize" too.
Inventing new words!
I haven't added a license yet. Depending on what people want to do with it I am happy with GPL, BSD, etc.
The fltk license is basically LGPL but with a specific exemption to permit static linking (which the LGPL would typically disallow) since static linking is "the norm" for fltk.
If this proves to be the way forward, we'd need you to "formally" say that the code could be released under the fltk license, I think, and then that should be it... IANAL etc...
