ethics of using a modified open-source library as part of an article ? - Article Writing Discussion Boards

If you think an article is spam, raise it in the spam forum.

Why such advice when you already know the result of raising there? I want to be sure that it is not under category where it should not be considered advertisement. In a recent case, one article was missing a note and as a result,it was reported in SA watch,article got deleted and author was about to go.

"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly"- SoMad

Raise it the way you raised it here. Ask if others think it's spam, and then leave it to others - otherwise, what's the point of having that forum?

The format of this blog[^] is quite messed up and there is no message board to tell it to the writer.

Would you mind to have a look?

Thanks

M.D.V.

If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.

I think John may have gone back and fixed this one. He's a good seed Smile | :)

Thanks,
Sean Ewington
CodeProject

These articles:
OOP in Python - part 1[^]
OOP in Python - Part 2[^]
Are originally published here:
http://python.dzone.com/articles/oop-python-1[^]
http://python.dzone.com/articles/oop-python-part-2[^]
Now, the author is the same, so this is no plagiarism, but I'm not sure that CP welcomes such repost...
Any opinion?

Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.

In my opinion, they would be better as blog posts here, rather than articles.

Partly inspired by the frequent QA questions involving validating user-entry in various formats, I've been planning to write an article on how to create a WinForms sub-classed TextBox that lets you specify characters to be filtered out, substituted for, or transformed into, in a very "high-level" way, and I'm at the point now where I'm satisfied the code is "ripe."

I thought it would "icing on the cake" to create a Visual Studio design-time data editor for the filter/substitute/transform rules.

There is an open-source library for implementing a design-time (PropertyGrid usable) editor for a generic Dictionary. It was last updated over two years ago, and there's no sign of any recent activity (except an "Issue" I just reported) for the same period of time. It has a NuGet install, and, while the source code is no longer directly downloadable, it's all on the CodePlex site, and can be copied.

So, I got busy and successfully modified the source so the library could work inside a sub-classed WinForm Control (the fact it would not work in such a context is what my "Issue" report was about).

Now, of course, I hope that the author of the library might respond, and then I could ask his permission to include the library in the code sample for the article, and also get a better understanding of what prevented it from working in a sub-classed Control; ideally, the author would change the behavior so the reader of the article could just get the library from his CodePlex site.

But, what if the author does not respond ? The library is licensed with the GNU LGPL 2.1 Public License. While this license states:

"you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish); that you receive source code or can get it if you want it; that you can change the software and use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you are informed that you can do these things."

I'm not at all informed about the legal/ethical dimensions and requirements for distributing a modified open-source library like this, and, frankly, I don't really want devote bandwidth to that.

I probably could write a design time editor from "scratch," but I'd rather be doing other things.

Appreciate your wise advice, and counsel.

thanks, Bill

«OOP to me means only messaging, local retention and protection and hiding of state-process, and extreme late-binding of all things. » Alan Kay's clarification on what he meant by the term "Object" in "Object-Oriented Programming."

Permission from the author is not necessary. You must only follow the license conditions (your modified version must use the same license and the source must be available). See also the GPL FAQ[^].

In your case you should let the original license text on top of the source files and add your own text indicating that it is a derived work and what has been added or changed. Optional add also your own readme file.

If you want your article code to be published also with LGPL, you can include the modified library sources with your source download package.

Otherwise you should provide an additional package with the modified library sources and add some text to the article license section to make clear that there are different licenses.

As already noted, you must publish the modified version using the same license. But you should check if the license is LGPL 2.1 or LGPL 2.1+. The latter may be indicated by the + sign or in textual form ("these or any later version of GPL"). If you are allowed to use a later version I would choose 3.0.

Thanks, Jochen, for this very thoughtful reply.

When I do publish an article here on CP, I'd like it to have either no license of any type, or the same "license" that most other CP articles have.

I'm still not sure if it's "legal" to publish an article on CP that would be "encumbered" by such things as LPGL.

This kind of issue is one I have not encountered before.

cheers, Bill

«OOP to me means only messaging, local retention and protection and hiding of state-process, and extreme late-binding of all things. » Alan Kay's clarification on what he meant by the term "Object" in "Object-Oriented Programming."

Having no license is a bad idea. A license gives users and authors predictability of legal decisions. The commonly used license here is the CPL which is quite close to the LGPL.

I don't see any problems with multiple licenses for different code packages. Maybe a CP team member can confirm this.

When writing software for the public, you are always faced with license issues. But with an article it is much simpler: You just have to follow the license and copyright terms of those parts that are not written by you and choose a license for your parts.

Once again, thanks for taking the time to reply, Jochen,

If my intent is purely educational: to provide code that anyone can use for any purpose anywhere ... and to take no "responsibility" for it, claim no copyright, or "ownership" of it ... imho, no license is not necessarily "bad" ... for me.

However, if/when I publish on CodeProject, then I want CP to be free to do whatever they now do by default in terms of licensing/copyright, etc.

I agree with you that some clarification from CP staff is needed.

thanks, Bill

«OOP to me means only messaging, local retention and protection and hiding of state-process, and extreme late-binding of all things. » Alan Kay's clarification on what he meant by the term "Object" in "Object-Oriented Programming."

I want to put some nice looking graphs in my articles. I already do this on my blog using a js chart library. I know I could use images, but anyways: Is there a library I can use in CP? Is Javascripting allowed?

Sadly no Javascripting is allowed Frown | :(

Thanks,
Sean Ewington
CodeProject

Sean Ewington wrote:
~~Sadly~~ Thankfully no Javascripting is allowed

FTFY.

I don't want to have to disable script on Code Project just in case some nefarious character adds malicious script to their article/question/message.

"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer

Is it legal to write articles about third party controls on this platform ?

I see many articles already being available :
Kendo UI : All about Web Widgets[^]
Kendo Grid: Column Freezing on Horizontal Scrolling[^]
Review of DevExpress WinForms Controls[^]

The first two articles meet a specific set of guidelines, where the authors are not associated with the product, they are merely writing on something they have.

The second article is like a paid review. It goes in that specific subsection and comes with that Editorial label at the top.

Thanks,
Sean Ewington
CodeProject

I want to call ComputePremium method from my application which take class as parameter unable to do so.

C#

[DesignerCategory("code")]
    [WebServiceBinding(Name = "BasicHttpBinding_IPremimumCalculatorService", Namespace = "http://tempuri.org/")]
    [GeneratedCode("System.Web.Services", "4.0.30319.17929")]
    [DebuggerStepThrough]
    public class PremiumCalculatorService : SoapHttpClientProtocol
    {



        [SoapDocumentMethod("http://www.apollomunichinsurance.com/B2BService/IPremimumCalculatorService/ComputePremium", RequestNamespace = "http://www.apollomunichinsurance.com/B2BService", ResponseNamespace = "http://www.apollomunichinsurance.com/B2BService", Use = SoapBindingUse.Literal, ParameterStyle = SoapParameterStyle.Wrapped)]
        public Client[] ComputePremium(PremiumCalculatorRequest premiumCalculatorRequest);

    }

This forum is for questions about writing articles for Code Project.

Try the WCF forum[^] instead.

"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer

I had literally written 5 paragraphs of an article I am working on, accidentally hit back and bam, all gone!

My fault (I'm not used to this keyboard and hit Alt+Left as opposed to Ctrl+Left to jump over a word) but a dialogue if you try to navigate away would be really handy.

Cheers

Disregard, turned out it had auto-saved and was able to select it from the menu and continue, thanks

Always write your articles offline, and only upload them when they are (almost) complete. Editing online is always risky, however hard the developers of CodeProject try to care for us.

Fair point, cheers

Style

CSS

overflow:scroll;

not working.

And how I can add borders to table?

Can you please email me the HTML? Maybe I have a better option.

Thanks,
Sean Ewington
CodeProject