Encyclopedia > GNAT Modified General Public License
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The GNAT Modified General Public License (short: Modified GPL, MGPL) is a version of the GNU General Public License specificly modified for the generic feature found in the Ada programming language. The GNU logo The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project (a project to create a complete free software operating system). ... Ada is a structured, statically typed programming language, designed by Jean Ichbiah of Cii Honeywell Bull in the 1970s. ...
The modification is as follows:
As a special exception, if other files instantiate generics from this unit, or you link this unit with other files to produce an executable, this unit does not by itself cause the resulting executable to be covered by the GNU General Public License. This exception does not however invalidate any other reasons why the executable file might be covered by the GNU Public License.
The compiler directivepragma License (Modified_GPL); activates GNAT's build in licence check in respect to the Modified GPL. In computer science, a compiler directive is data embedded in source code by programmers to tell compilers some intention about compilation. ... GNAT is the GNU Ada Compiler based on GCC. The front-end and runtime are written in Ada. ...