[helix-maintainers] after seeing "This section requires a Commercial license" in the hlxserver.cfg

[Rob Lanphier]

Hi Sean,

I happen to be lurking on this mailing list and saw your note about
problems with packaging the Helix DNA Server in Debian.  I'm cc'ing the
helix-server-dev@helixcommunity.org mailing list, as they may have more
to say on the subject.  helix-server-dev folks: the list the original
message was sent to was this one:
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/helix-maintainers

The metapoint that I'd like to make is this:  the Helix Server team is
serving many masters.  There are many, many squeaky wheels, and an
infinite number of improvements to be made.  If you don't at least try
make a case for your particular improvements to the right people, than
the odds of getting your issues fixed diminishes substantially.

More inline....

On Mon, 2005-04-11 at 01:22 -0700, Sean Champ wrote:
> Some responses:
> 
> 1) The file /etc/helix/server/hlxserver.cfg "looks like XML" and yet,
> it seems rather  silly; it is not a well-formed/valid XML  file. There
> is no XML 'root element' in the file. I cannot expect any XML parser
> to be able to actually deal with that.
> 
> How this has "got by them", I do not know. How they can  make it
> nearly an XML file, and they do not even know to include a root
> element in the document, is "beyond me". I'm not up for signing-up
> with yet another mailing list, just to "shoot at 'em", about this.

It's called "legacy code".  The reason for this is twofold:
1.  The format was designed before XML was even finalized as a standard
(in late 1997)
2.  It was designed by an engineer who used XML rather grudgingly.
3.  There weren't standard XML parsers available at the time.

While we recognize that this is a wart in the system now, refining and
re-refining our config files has not been at the top of our list, nor
our customers' lists.  The server config parser can handle the files
just fine.

That said, there may be an effort to revamp the config files that I'm
not aware of, so someone on the helix-server-dev list who is closer to
the topic may have more to say.

> 2) I've seen two sections in the hlxserver.cfg file, with the
> following text, written  in the comments: 
> 
>         This section requires a Commerce license 
> 
> 
> I am not intending to "stump thump" about the GPL. Still, I'm having a
> tough time, at taking Helix/Real seriously, here.
> 
> I'd ike to ask, of this free/open community : What is that "Commercial
> license" about? 

I've got a couple theories here, but these are just guesses:
*  These are legacy comments that can be removed, since it looks like
it's around the basic authentication code, which I think is generally
available.
*  These are here to help someone who is building a product on top of
this.  This is dual-licensed code, and we have commercial customers who
pay us for the right to build proprietary products.

Once again, someone on the helix-server-dev list may have more to say.

Rob

-- 
Rob Lanphier, Development Support Manager - RealNetworks
Helix Community: http://helixcommunity.org 
Development Support:
http://www.realnetworks.com/products/support/devsupport