[SOLVED] desLib: LGPL - Correct Way to License?

Would this be the correct way to put this file, and if I duplicate the ways I have done things, all other files, under the LGPL license? Or at least one correct way? If it is, consider it a development version. If not, please help me modify the comments to correctly do it. The code is fine the way it is for now. Before I go and change all my files, I want to make sure I do this one properly.

I was unhappy with the licenses I tried to create, and decided to try to use one that was already written instead. It would need to be this one, because it needs to be able to be linked with non-free programs or free programs. It's a library and I wouldn't want it incompatible with any software you try to use with it, that's a good policy for this type of library.

And while we're at it, I have a tricky situation that I need to figure out as well. This library was created to encompass all I learned about the C++ language and also the C language too. I would be adding new code to it as well, over time. PNF code is a good set of code to use, the header I have used there. But it's not developed enough yet to go there.

Remember that I said that this encompasses everything I know about the language(s)? Well I do mean everything. I had to learn the language(s) somehow, and I learned these two from reading multiple books which are designed to teach you the languages. The whole purpose of those books are to teach you those languages. It would be therefore, at least unless otherwise claimed, some kind of fair use to use code given for the purposes of learning the language and using what you know in real programs. I didn't take any of the exact programs and stick them in in a non-modified form in their complete entireties or anything. The task I got the books for is accomplished. I know these languages, and very well. I can prove it by writing programs which are entirely different in their basic code from the code in the books. It has my own style which I've developed over time.

But what I had done is base the code (by retyping in different ways), off of the code which is found in the book. ONLY the code, not the text. I made it suit a general purpose, and completely transformed it to fit my purpose. Then it can be used in real programs (at least technically speaking). One such object is String. It was based off of the String found in the book called "Teach Yourself C++ in Just 21 Days". I'd have to look to see which version, but it's an old version, and none of it's programs compile in modern compilers without some little modification, which at the point of reading the book, I had learned how to do.

However, it is certainly not verbatim code, nor was it copied off of a disk with the file or anything. As applies to the library, it was retyped and processed by my brain, to fix bugs and work out technical details. Then once I got a base working, I also needed to modify it and add new methods and everything to get it to do just what I want. And it's development may not be complete at this point.

For example, the code given in the book, uses "char *", as the underlying type. But I have used "string" as the underlying type. And I did that on purpose based off of what worked to begin with. But it does share a lot of the same interface as the "char *" version found in the book.

There are other stories like this one, found throughout the desLib code. This is part of the reason these are only developer versions I'm posting at the moment. There are problems I'm trying to work out and I'm trying to learn the legal aspects of things. First I needed to learn the technical aspects, while taking my first steps into programming. Now I'm ready to learn legal aspects as well, making more than just me able to use the programs in real life.

So my question for this part of the thread (this post), is how do I give all the proper legal credit to everyone in each individual file? Or would I need to or should I do it? There are several objects as well, in desLib, which I have written from scratch completely from all the learned material I have done, such as if I have it yet, the IO class. And of course the PNF portion which might be later added to this library, was written with only modest help from people at this forum, by them simply pointing me in the right direction, but me completely doing all the work. None of those things, directly resemble anything.

But this basically shows how I think. When given code that can use libraries of different forms and stuff, I think in terms of everything else I have ever learned about that language. I am practically helpless in each of those languages without reusing all the code I have ever learned how to write before. Basically, desLib would eventually be translated, as I learn more languages, into those other languages. Translated, not copied. Some of the classes, and objects would simply not apply to every other language.

P.S. - Despite my asking several times, the legal aspects went beyond the comprehension of any of the teachers I have had, the few times I have had programming classes, in both college and high school level. This has left me a bit unprepared for the career moves I am trying to make. But I am capable of doing research on my own, which was where I picked up this much, including in this forum and doing it that way. Thanks for your answers. They are going a long way.

Any answers?

Primarily I'm working on my network now at this point, but answering this helps me be able to decide to make contributions as well.

You might need to ask an intellectual property attorney about this one. I don't think that any of us is qualified to answer such very specific questions. But, you could spend a few hundred bucks and get an attorney's letter ... "ask someone who knows."

I discovered the value of attorneys years ago – they're called counselors for a reason. Yeah, they're professionals who charge for their time just like you do. "Let me ask Tom or Hank about that ..." They authoritatively answer the question, and send me a bill. I pay it.

Okay. I'll see what I can do.