[vlc-devel] Project of generation libvlc.lib compatible with MS Visual Studio.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Le samedi 12 novembre 2011 07:24:57 Sergey Radionov, vous avez écrit :
> Does it mean that, GPL projects can't include any file, that need
> proprietary programs to build?

Not quite.

> For expample, than any GPL project can't include Visual Studio
> solutions(.sln)/projects(.vcproj), and can't build by Visual Studio (or any
> microsoft compilator)?

A GPL project can provide VS project files as part of the source distribution. 
There are no problems with that. Problems come with binary distribution.

Basically GPL'd binaries must be reproducible with just the GPL sources and 
build system, and with (possibly non-GPL) components of the operating system. 
It all makes sense. Otherwise you could turn GPL code proprietary while 
requiring some proprietary tool to compile it, which nobody else would have.

So you can distribute VLC built with the non-GPL Oracle/Sun compiler for 
Solaris, since it is part of the Solaris OS. But I would advise not to 
distribute any VLC or VLC-derived binaries made with any toolchain that would 
not come with the operating system.


Note that you are free to compile and debug VLC in VS if you want to do it. 
Just don't redistribute the binaries if you want to stay on the safe side.

-- 
Rémi Denis-Courmont
http://www.remlab.net/
http://fi.linkedin.com/in/remidenis