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Aucbvax.2406 fa.unix-wizards utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!wedel@UTEXAS-11 Wed Jul 22 07:06:31 1981 Reply to: Are there still any V6 C compilers? From: wedel at UTEXAS-11 (Wally Wedel) The situation with respect to C compiler distribution has been very confused ever since the Delaware Usenix meeting in June 1980. At that meeting Al Arms announced that a letter was being sent to all UNIX multiple cpu and multiple system licensees to the effect that a given licensee could define one C compiler has its standard and then use that compiler on all its systems. It's not clear how many, if any, of those letters actually went out. Our site for one never received the letter although we license every system for every UNIX version.

Many people interpreted Al's announcement to mean that C com- pilers could be freely interchanged among systems. This was not his intention and Larry Isely came to San Francisco to clarify and re-emphasize that a V6-only licensee could NOT run a version 7 C compiler legally.

This situation is a real problem for Usenix distributions because our records indicate that many commercial users in particular choose to buy a V6 license rather than a V7 license because of the expense. The Usenix Board is considering writing a letter to Western requesting that the pcc compiler for the PDP-11 be avail- able under a separate license to try to address some of the prob- lems you raise. I don't know what our success rate will be given Western's slooooooow response to anything these days.

The bottom line for now is that V6 licensees can't legally run a V7 compiler unless they have received the letter from Western al- lowing them to do so on the basis of other licenses within the organization.

Sorry to be so windy on this but it's a messy issue indeed! -------

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