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Interface2016-04-26 10:40:56
Delphi
Interface, 2016-04-26 10:40:56

How is software made in Delphi licensed? How are components licensed?

Good afternoon!
Faced an almost moral problem. I have been familiar with Delphi for quite a long time, I have a small project on it, which I am slowly sawing.
So questions: are there any restrictions on software written in Delphi? That is, suppose I bought a Delphi license, then I can distribute programs written on it? I suspect that there should be no restrictions (tell me if not).
And if I still do not have a Delphi license, can I somehow distribute this software? Those. let's say I have a friend who has a license - can I use his Delphi to compile my program? Or I have Delphi at my university, for example, can I use it?
More importantly (because one license can be bought) how is work on Delphi OpenSource projects carried out? It turns out that all developers (as well as end users, if only source codes will be distributed, without binaries) must have a licensed Delphi? Are there any workarounds (within the law, of course, because outside the decision are more obvious)?
But what I'm more interested in is how are Delphi components licensed?That is, Delphi (as far as I understand) includes a certain amount of source code, all those plug-ins in uses, as well as a library of visual components. Can this code be used? If there are restrictions on its copying, how is this process regulated? That is, is it possible to borrow pieces of code? Whole units? If you can't copy a piece of a unit, is it possible to take a closer look at it, understand how it works, and then write your own, which is just like ? In theory, having a Delphi license, I can freely distribute the programs written on it (I think so, correct me if I'm wrong).
But what will happen if, roughly speaking: someone buys a license, and then writes another IDE in Delphi (with boring wallpapers, yeah), which uses the sources supplied with Delphi to the maximum - is this permissible? Is it possible to take the same VCL components and make a library (dll) of widgets a la wxWidgets or Qt out of them? Can it be freely distributed?
Maybe there is an article that tells what you can do with Dephi, what you can distribute and what are the restrictions.
PS The option "do not use Delphi" is generally considered, but for now I want to understand how things are with it.
PS Lazarus, alas, does not fit, because. for the particular project I'm interested in, it doesn't have the necessary features
Update: What happens in this case:
- there is some project which is transferred from Delphi to Lazarus;
- Lazarus does not have some component that Delphi has; (for example, some kind of graph display component)
You can make something like a wrapper for this component and put its functionality into a dll. Question: will it be possible to freely distribute this product that uses this dll?
If so, is this practice common? If not, why not? In other words: if there is a large community of people who need certain Delphi components (which can be taken out in this way), then can they pull them out in this way and not switch to Lazarus? That is, it would be a set of free, but not open components that could be used.

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3 answer(s)
Z
zed, 2016-04-26
@zedxxx

www.interface.ru/home.asp?artId=21283
Here is a list of available commercial licenses https://www.embarcadero.com/en/app-development-too...
Pay attention to the paragraph "License for commercial use", in which Starter is indicated "Restricted", which means:
Other licenses allow you to distribute your software without restrictions.

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hubramubr, 2016-04-26
@huramubr

More importantly (because one license can be bought) how is work on Delphi OpenSource projects carried out?

Address in itself office-owner of Delphi.
Perhaps, under open source and at the university, they will generally provide a dozen licenses for free.

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Alexey S., 2016-05-04
@Winsik

as I remember, the compiler itself comes without a license (although the information is from the time of delphi 7). Only the development environment requires a license. And if I remember correctly, then you can write in a text editor and compile through the console

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