[Building Sakai] [Management] Gradebook Situation

[Noah Botimer]

GB2 uses Ext JS/Ext GWT for the spreadsheet/tree views. These are GPLv3. There is a "FLOSS Exception" that applies for ECLv2, which can exempt an "Application" from the same-license bits of GPL.

However, this is a unique case and I don't know that we've gotten any assessment from someone qualified. There are also very tricky details around "Extensions" (modifications, add-ons), where distribution of the main library is forbidden. As a last detail, the exception applies to given versions "or later, where the exception notice is present". As a technicality, the legal entity has changed names (to Sencha, Inc.), so the exception should be vetted for the "or later" part.

There is effectively no suitable replacement at this time, as I understand it. Ext JS is quite nice and has a very specific object/inheritance model, giving good results and pretty tight binding. I'm less familiar with Ext GWT, but it effectively provides the Ext JS library to GWT apps, where I believe the binding is even a bit tighter.

As I understand, the spreadsheet/tree interface of GB2 is the primary goal and primary body of work -- porting would essentially be a rewrite and a different project.

Thanks,
-Noah


http://www.sencha.com/products/floss-exception.php


On Jul 28, 2010, at 10:27 AM, Carl Hall wrote:

> What library is it?  Maybe we could work out some dual licensing or help find a replacement.
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 9:16 AM, Mark Norton <markjnorton at earthlink.net> wrote:
>  > Gradebook 2 includes an indispensable library which is licensed under GPL
> 
> Well, that was a pretty silly thing to do.  We've managed to steer clear
> of GPL code for the entire lifetime of Sakai (with the possible
> exception of MySQL).  That, at a minimum, needs to be fixed, IMO.
> 
> - Mark Norton
> 
> Clay Fenlason wrote:
> > We started to talk about the state of various gradebook tools at the
> > Project Coordination meetings in Denver, and some discussion between
> > Kirk, Karen and I has followed since, so an update is in order.  I
> > wanted also to communicate the information more widely and make sure
> > the rest of the community was aware.
> >
> > You can find an overview of the gradebook situation in Confluence [1],
> > where the information will be revised as the situation develops.
> > Questions and comments welcome, though you'll notice we don't have
> > answers to every question yet.
> >
> > Please note in particular the next step planned around 2.8. In
> > mid-August UCDavis and IU are planning to come together to agree on
> > the final details of a common data model, and it's expected that this
> > work (including conversion scripts) could be completed by the
> > projected code freeze in mid-September
> >
> > ~Clay
> >
> > [1] http://confluence.sakaiproject.org//x/_hIhB
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