Blankname wrote:I honestly think every part of the PureBasic package that is written in PureBasic should be open sourced (with restrictions against other languages using it). This wouldn't hurt the PureBasic language at all, as that's merely cosmetics like the IDE.
In theory, that's a great idea.
In practice, any source that is available, regardless of the license (assuming it is not 100% "do what you want"), gets abused (i.e. used in a manner contrary to the license) by
someone. At the least, it allows a coder to "easily" reverse engineer it and replace its functionality (even if the license prohibits it--if that is even possible).
This flaw in humans forces people like Fred to accept either a) the "theft" or b) the inability to o/s code. With his previous experience of sharing IDE source, my guess would be he is accepting option b. (Although I was not here during that time, my guess is based on comments about it be ported to other platforms.) Because he was willing to try it once, I'd bet that had it gone as he'd hoped, there would be a lot more o/s stuff from him.