Author: Dirk Riehle

  • How open source licenses increase or curtail reach of the software

    How open source licenses increase or curtail reach of the software

    Relicensing from a permissive to a copyleft license curtails the potential reach of the open-source software, while relicensing from a copyleft to a permissive license increases its potential reach. In the abstract, this is easy to see: Having less requirements on the use of the software allows more uses and hence increases reach. The confusion,…

  • What about skipping the “open source” part in commercial open source?

    What about skipping the “open source” part in commercial open source?

    GitButler, a budding better git client, just announced that it is making its source code available under the Functional Source License (FSL), a source-available/non-compete license. In a tweet, GitButler states that this is open-source software. Previous attempts at calling competition-curbing licenses open source licenses failed, and I expect it won’t be different here. What’s new…

  • Finding the Right Scope for Open Source Development (Nettsträter & Brehler, IEEE Computer)

    Finding the Right Scope for Open Source Development (Nettsträter & Brehler, IEEE Computer)

    I’m happy to report that the 27th article in the Open Source Expanded column of IEEE Computer has been published. Title How to find the right scope for open source developments? Keywords Open Source Software, Stakeholders, Heterogeneous Networks, Software Development Management, Market Research, Business, Competitive Intelligence, Interoperability, Management Authors Andreas Nettsträter, Marius Brehler Publication Computer…

  • A systematic literature review of pre-requirements specification traceability [RE Journal]

    A systematic literature review of pre-requirements specification traceability [RE Journal]

    Abstract Requirements traceability (RT) is the ability to link requirements to other software development artifacts. In pre-requirements (pre-RS) traceability, requirements are linked to their origin, such as interviews with stakeholders, meeting protocols, or legacy systems. Compared with post-RS traceability, which links requirements to source code and other later artifacts, pre-RS traceability has seen much less…

  • Is isEven() a bad function to have?

    Is isEven() a bad function to have?

    Someone on Twitter got all exasperated that there is an isEven() function in Javascript to compute whether a number is an even number. After all it is equivalent to the simple expression of ((n % 2) == 0); why would they not use this? Well, already this simple example contains most of what you need…

  • You just don’t understand (open source edition)

    You just don’t understand (open source edition)

    Listening to open source developers complaining about companies not donating money and then getting ignored by said companies reminds me of a quarreling couple, where one side has a lot to say and the other side is just silent. Let me turn this silence into statements a company would make. Let’s go! Open source developer:…