There is still a debate raging on the validity of a companies claims when it releases the software it created as “Open Source”. Below are 10 rules that explain what it usually takes to be considered not only “Open Source” but truly “Free software”.
Open source doesn’t just mean access to the source code. The distribution terms of open-source software must comply with the following criteria:
1. Free Redistribution
The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.
2. Source Code
The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost–preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.
3. Derived Works
The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.
4. Integrity of The Author’s Source Code
The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of “patch files” with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.
5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.
7. Distribution of License
The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.
8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product
The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program’s being part of a particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program’s license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.
9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software
The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.
10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral
No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.
Click here for a other articles in the article section.
Ok, so based on the comments I realized that not having a “win” or “lose” condition at this point was not working. Well, fear not my friends, I have fixed the situation and now you can lose or win depending on how you play the game now. Yay!
Here is the latest tower defense game that you can now build…
Welcome to another installment of my tower defense series – Part 9. I know you’ve been asking for more and I’ve done my best to get creative. I’ve already built out the next few Parts the only thing I need to do now is explain it all, but for now without any more delay – This lesson we will be covering the following subjects…
We are now at Part 8! You should be pretty up on your tower defense games at this point in the series. However, before we begin you should make sure you have reviewed the previous tutorials if you came here directly from a link.
You can’t get something for nothing. That’s what my family always said, so why should tower defense games be any different. You need to make people work for it. That means you need to pay your towers for hire and the better the towers, the more they should cost. Don’t worry we won’t make anything too expensive, but keep in mind that this is “level balancing” and it is a hugely important step…
Wow, the last article was intense – How can I possibly beat that? Oh, I think I can come up with an idea, um, how about tower powers?! You know that thing that makes the towers placed unique. Well I could think of a few powers that can be combined to make virtually all tower types – but then i realized something so complete would take a lot of writing to explain. So here are the intermediate level tower powers!
Each creep has an increasing number of hit points after each wave, starting at 40 and going up to the final boss on wave 6 at 6000. Don’t worry I didn’t limit you with the burden of money yet, so you should have no problems. Just place as many towers as you need to get the job done!
Today we are going to charge right into the newest section in the series – “Starting the tower attack!” This is one of the most important components in a tower defense game and will ultimately be one of the most enjoyable to program. I will definitely not get to all the cooler aspects of attacking towers in this one section, but I promise that we will create all sorts of fun towers soon. You will however, at the end of this particular tutorial, have enough knowledge to make any cool towers you can think of.
Welcome to part 3 of the tower defense series – Today we are going to be delving into the fine art of realism. Nothing ruins the immersion of games like something that doesn’t make sense in the real world (unless that’s what your game is completely about. Since most tower defense games are rooted in the real world, we ned to make sure that the items in the game act like real object.
Welcome to part 2 of the tower defense series – Today we’re going to be adding code to place towers. Whoa, slow down there you say – “place towers? That’s crazy talk”. I assure you it isn’t and once you are able to place towers in the next section we will combine our lessons together to have a single level of play!
I am going to going to show you how to have a basic enemy follow a predefined path, by following a series of waypoints. By the end of this series, you will have all the information to be well on your way to making the next great tower defense game.
Walter Reid
Recent Comments