I don't want to wake up sleeping dogs, but while updating various slides to base them on FreePascal/Lazarus instead of Delphi, I found that some documentation that I had copied from the Delphi Help years ago (probably version 6 or so), is literally the same in the FreePascal RTL documentation.

In this particular case, it concerns the text for the String function Delete:

Delete removes Count characters from string S, starting at position Index. All characters after the deleted characters are shifted Count positions to the left, and the length of the string is adjusted.

It is word for word exactly the same in the current FPC RTL reference.

One explanation could be that Borland took this from somewhere else, and that that is a public source also used by FreePascal. Or maybe the Delphi documentation has a license that allows this. Or, ...

Anyway, it could be a concern.

Tom

In our previous episode, Tom Verhoeff said:

Problem with all delphi IP is that it floats free on the web, including sites as about.com.

Nevertheless, we of course always will remove infringing code^H^H^H^H euh, anything.

A tool to compare docs automatically spring to mind. (one could decompile .hlp I guess, and maybe a way to map topics from the index to eachother could be found?)

So in general I would ask all users that notice such potential infringements to enter this into the bugtracker. If you have particularly large batches, or a way to systematically generate them, please contact a FPC developer.

Given that I didn't even own or use Delphi at the time the system unit was first documented, this is strange news indeed.

In each case:
The documentation has been hand-written from scratch, always in the 'joe' editor, starting on a 486 machine exclusively running linux version 1.x something (As some core members may remember, the machine was called tflily) many years ago when I just did the Linux port. The editing has always been done on a linux machine. Copy & Paste from a TP or Delphi manual or help file is excluded, unless performed by someone else than me: there have been some minor contributions over the years - but they are rare, considering the more than 2000 pages. A few bigger exceptions aside, I couldn't even say which ones or remember the last contribution.

Michael.

Maybe you should sue Codegear.

Mattias

Och, with the current worldwide financial crisis, I would probably be too late anyway, if the Codegear/Inprise/Borland past is any indicator ;)

Michael.

Michael Van Canneyt wrote

Given that I didn't even own or use Delphi at the time the system unit was first documented, this is strange news indeed.

I could be wrong (it has happened before :-).

Instead of having copied (like in retype) the doc from the Delphi help, I might have copied it from FreePascal doc and attributed it to Delphi (because that is what we were using at the time). I cannot really check, because I no longer have a Delphi installation.

Now that would be nasty, wouldn't it?

Can anyone check what the Delphi doc says for the string operations Delete and Pos?

My apologies if I cried wolf at an unwarranted moment.

Tom

I checked:
It is very different, so probably you indeed copied from FPC docs.

Which is also correct on your part, because the FPC docs are free text, and if you used Delphi documentation on slides for teaching, you yourself would be in copyright violation. (unless you expressly asked permission from Borland).

Given that you nearly gave me a heartattack and that I didn't sleep tonight, I'd like to ask everyone to be careful when making such statements. Even though I know these allegations are not correct, it works heavily on my system. I'm only as human as the next man. :-)

Michael.

Michael Van Canneyt wrote

I checked: It is very different, so probably you indeed copied from FPC docs.

Please accept my apologies for barking at nothing.

Which is also correct on your part, because the FPC docs are free text, and if you used Delphi documentation on slides for teaching, you yourself would be in copyright violation. (unless you expressly asked permission from Borland).

Well, the legal situation is more complicated. In an educational setting quoting has more freedom. Also, quoting short passages with proper credits is allowed (e.g. in a book review).

Given that you nearly gave me a heartattack and that I didn't sleep tonight, I'd like to ask everyone to be careful when making such statements. Even though I know these allegations are not correct, it works heavily on my system. I'm only as human as the next man. :-)

I am truly sorry about this.

We do know now that the documentation is in fact (very likely to be) clean as well. I was worried too.

Thanks for the confirmation and Let's get back to the real work,

Tom

In our previous episode, Michael Van Canneyt said:

Hehe, why do you think it took me so long to reply to Tom's original msg? Recovery time....