Feedback on Renaissance System i App Framework

Published: March 19, 2007

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

I was interested to see your article about our Renaissance product. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly things get around. I did have one question though; I wondered why you thought that Renaissance was not open source. I know that IBM does not want CGIDEV2 to be open source per se, but Renaissance is supposed to be.

We opted against using the GNU GPL because it is not clear how such products can be implemented in a commercial application, but the MPL allows the intended spirit of open source and it is also clear about allowing commercial inclusion and is also reciprocal (allowing us to benefit from other people's enhancements). Was there anything in particular that you feel excludes it from being categorized as open source?

Best regards,

--Kevin Turner, director, CoralTree Systems

Hi, Kevin

I simply misunderstood.

So, explain to me what pieces are open source and what pieces are not? CGIDEV2 is not open source as far as I know, although IBM made some vague promises it might do that in 2005 and then when the CGIDEV storm settled and PHP was the new kid in town, no one said anything about it any more.

I am happy to give my readers a more fully explanation. So, tell me the parts of the Renaissance framework, what licenses govern those parts, where CGIDEV2 is and how it is woven into it, and where the source code for all of the components are.

Thanks, man.

--TPM

Well, for the definitive answer regarding CGIDEV2, you would have to correspond with Giovanni Perotti at www.easy400.net. It is true that IBM has denied open source status for CGIDEV2, according to the Easy400 Web site, but whatever that is supposed to mean is beyond me, since you can copy it, modify it, distribute it, and so forth and IBM provides no warranties or guarantees for it. The fact that it is not part of the GNU GPL is probably a good thing, since the GPL is a bit sticky (especially in the U.S.) with regard to its use within commercial applications.

Renaissance is a set of components that build on top of CGIDEV2 and greatly enhance the capabilities thereof. Renaissance also makes use of several other well known freely available tools like rico, prototype.js, ajaxtoolbox, treeview. Each of those have their own licensing, all of a similar flavor.

All of the components that CoralTree develops and distributes that glue all this together are provided under the MPL license and, again, you can copy it, modify it, redistribute, include in commercial applications, etc. The only thing about the MPL is that it is supposed to be reciprocal, so that if you do enhance it, you must make the original author (CoralTree) aware of the enhancements and make them available to CoralTree and all other users of Renaissance. So you can't take it and disappear into the sunset claiming it as your own. The MPL is also good because it makes it clear that you can use Renaissance as part of a commercial application with impunity.

CGIDEV2 is a collective term, really, for a service program, and the source and object code for that service program is provided in the Renaissance download--and it has been slightly tweaked. However, the tweak is no longer used, so CGIDEV2 could be excluded from the download completely, but that just means people would have to download it separately, so it might as well stay put for the sake of convenience. However one obtains CGIDEV2, Renaissance does not work without it so you have to have it. CGIDEV2, however, does not need Renaissance.

Anyway, to say it (Renaissance) is not open source is misleading, because you can download it and do whatever you want with it--with the understanding that you have an obligation to keep CoralTree in the loop for any enhancements and fixes so that we can, at our discretion, include them in our download.

Does that help? There is more info here and here.

Regards,

--Kevin

Thanks. That clears it up.

--TPM

RELATED STORY

CoralTree Gives Away Renaissance App Dev Framework for System i

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