July 03, 2008

Notepad2i, The Story of Notepad3

Couple of days ago I've released a fork version of the last GPLd version of Notepad2 which was 1.0.12, released in 2004.

My modifications were:

  • The installation and the shell integration
  • Refining and formatting the web documentation which was already exist in the Florin's web site, and associating it with the application.
  • Replacing graphic items (icons/toolbars)
  • Some little modifications in the executable program itself.

I called My work "Notepad3", and I wrote the following in the "About" dialog box: 

Notepad3 1.0

(c) [myname] [year]

[myEmailAddress]

[myWebsite]

Notepad2 1.0.12

(c) Florian Balmar [year]

[hisEmailAddress]

[hisWebsite]

The GPL 2.0 Notice

So, What's the output?

What I did exactly is "boxing" an old version of Florin's work in a "box" which is my work, with keeping Florian's copyright notice everywhere. In my opinion, this "box" promotes the popularity of Notepad2.

Why I called it "Notepad3"?

When I want to release a parallel/fork version of any open source software, I can't give it the same name, because online software databases use the name of the software as the primary key.

Notepad2 is the name of Florian's work, "2" is a part of its name, not a version number, and that's why I thought of using "Notepad3".

  • Notepad = simplicity
  • Notepad2 = simplicity + syntax highlighting
  • Notepad3 = simplicity + syntax highlighting + installation/documentation

The questions

My question is: Am I broking GPL 2.0? Do I do anything wrong legally or ethically?

This question will lead to several questions:

  • What's software?
    • Code/compiled code?, or
    • Code + Documentation + Installation

If the first:

  • Do little modifications made for specific software deserves a copyright notice?

If the second:

  • Does the (About) dialog represent the executable program or the product as a whole: executable + documentation + installation

In my opinion, it deserves, but I understand and I think that there should be a way to distinguish between the big efforts and the little efforts, and I thing that this is a common problem in open source community.

And I think that (About) dialog represents the product as a whole: executable + documentation + installation

I directed these question to GNU mailing list to check if I did something wrong, but I've got no serious answer.

But anyway, and whatever my opinion was about the argument, I'd like to apologize to Florian for any non-intended hurt that I might cause to his great work, and I actually renamed my work to Notepad2i, and I removed all copyright notices which refers to my name.

You can download the modified version from here.

Posted at 4:08 PM | Comments?
Edited on: July 03, 2008 4:13 PM
Categories: Open your Windows