KosherJava Zmanim API Released Under the LGPL License

LGPL 2.1Until this point the KosherJava Zmanim API has been released under the GPL V2.0 open source license. This had the effect of forcing any application written using the library to release it’s source code under the same license. Being that the Zmanim API is a library, the LGPL is a more appropriate license. The LGPL allows developers to use the KosherJava Zmanim API, yet keep their application code closed source. Only changes to the API itself (such as ports to different languages) would have to be released as open source. I had in the past on request released the source under the LGPL (the Zmanim API .NET port has already been released under the LGPL with my permission), and with the recent 3/27/2011 SVN checkin I formally changed the Java Zmanim API license to the LGPL 2.1 (not the newer LGPL 3.0). The next 1.3.0 release will be the first formal release under the LGPL. In one case the change to the license required permission from developer who wrote code used by the Zmanim API, and this was done.

8 thoughts on “KosherJava Zmanim API Released Under the LGPL License”

      1. It’s good that the API now also supports the calendar functionality, since it makes sense to integrate it all together.

        I’d like to work on the C++ port, but I have a feeling it might depend on boost datetime libraries. I need to research a bit more what code from Java.Date, Java.Calendar and Java.Timezone the API is using. I’d prefer to avoid adding extra dependencies, but boost implements quite a decent datetime API, so one doesn’t need to reinvent it from scratch.

      2. I started working on the port. One of the moments I wanted to highlight – if you are going to expand the library, try to avoid too Java specific / dynamic language functionality (like reflection for example, which some comments there propose to use) to avoid an overhead of implementing that in C++. This is just a thought. Port can probably work around these issues, but the difference between code base would be bigger.

        As a side note, it would be also very useful if someone could port the library into JavaScript. It’ll enable easy to create web application with Zmanim API.

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