Picture of Michel PONSLogo of CO-LaN smallWithin the CAPE-OPEN 2018 Annual Meeting, CO-LaN Management Board wanted to receive suggestions and advice on the licensing scheme to be applied to COBIA. A discussion session was organized, introduced and moderated by Michel PONS.

Michel PONS (contractor to CO-LaN as Chief Technology Officer) summarizes in a short presentation (access PDF here, 146 Kbytes) what COBIA is. As a middleware, COBIA will need to be installed, hence distributed, on each machine where an end-user will execute COBIA-based software.

In order to ease up development of software based on COBIA, CO-LaN is providing tools for developers such as code generators. These tools are part of what is typically called a software development kit.

The Methods & Tools Special Interest Group has proposed a total of three different distribution modes together with a licensing scheme common to the three modes. The third distribution mode is the source code repository.

CO-LaN wants to see COBIA succeeds:

  • As soon as possible
  • As widely as possible
  • As safely as possible

But how to create trust in COBIA, not only from a technical point of view, but also from a licensing point of view?

The question of the COBIA license is also part of the evaluation form sent out to all participants of the CAPE-OPEN 2018 Annual Meeting.