gnubol: packed decimal arithmetic

[Fred Mobach <fred@mobach.nl>]

Hello,

Thanks to an article (Pinguin im Mainfram Land) in the German Linux
Magazin 06/2000 I got a link to the Hercules project. I didn't see this
mentioned in the mailinglists so I would like to bring this up. You can
find it at http://www.snipix.freeserve.co.uk/hercules.htm.

I have bad news and good news.

The bad news is that it's not a GPL'ed project, the license is
restrictive. You can get the sources and use it for educational or hobby
purposes. Many other things are forbidden. I'm not a lawyer so I really
don't know what you can do. For your convenience I've copies the most
interesting part of the licence so not all of you need to read it
online.

The good news is that C programmers working on GPL'ed projects are
permitted to get some education on the mainframe instruction set of the
IBM S/390 systems.  At least they can use it for their personal
non-commercial education. I also think that these sources might shed
more light on the instruction set than the manuals.

In case you don't understand some instructions I'm of course willing to
explain. And in case you need help how to read the license : ask Richard
Stallman.

Best regards,

Fred Mobach
fred @ mobach.nl


Part of the Hercules Public Licence :

    GRANT OF LICENCE
    5. By this agreement the developer grants you a licence to make
       copies of the software solely for the purposes permitted by this
       agreement.
    PERMITTED USES
    6. You may use the software for your own personal non-commercial
       educational and hobby use.
    7. You may use the software to develop and test your own programs
       which are intended to run on machines conforming to the S/370
       and/or ESA/390 architectures, provided that no part of the
       software is included in such programs.
    NON-PERMITTED USES
    8. You may not charge any fee for allowing anyone to use the
       software.
    9. You may not charge any fee for distributing copies of the
       software.
   10. You may not use the software to provide any service for which any

       fee is charged, except for the purposes of developing your own
       programs as provided in this agreement under the heading
       "permitted uses".
   11. You may not use the software as part of any training course for
       which any fee is charged.
   12. You may not include copies of the software in any distribution
for
       which any fee is charged, even if the fee relates to the media or

       to the distribution costs or to something else included in the
       distribution.
   13. You may not distribute incomplete or modified versions of the
       software.
   14. You may not copy any portion of the software into any other
       program.
   15. You may not use the software for any purpose in which its failure

       might cause death or personal injury, including, but not limited
       to, medical life-support systems or aircraft or spacecraft
control
       systems.
    MODIFICATIONS
   16. You may create modified versions of the software for your own
       personal use.
   17. You may not distribute modified versions of the software.
   18. You may submit modifications to the developer for inclusion in
the
       software. By submitting a modification you grant the developer a
       perpetual royalty-free right to include the modification in
future
       versions of the software and the right to distribute such
modified
       versions to anyone under the terms of this agreement and any
under
       other agreement at the discretion of the developer without
payment
       of any fee to you. The developer is under no obligation to
include
       any particular modification in the software.


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