Re: Sun buys out MySQL

Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> Code with a hardcoded Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver") will
> only work with MySQL.
> 
> It is a thin line, but I think the line is there.

How would you view code that injects a driver from a deployment
descriptor, 
similarly to
  Class.forName( context.getAttribute( "dbdriver" ));
during init()?

Here we're assuming a getAttribute() that returns a class name read from a

deployment descriptor at run time.

This idiom will work with any database system for which a JDBC driver JAR
is 
available at run time, whether obtained from the application vendor or
some 
other source (such as directly from MySQL).  It could even allow an 
application to hot-swap its back end, though goodness knows why anyone
would 
do such a thing.

Every time I've encountered this controversy over whether the GPL
restricts 
certain uses of GPLed JDBC drivers, it hinges on the definition of
"linking" 
to the JDBC driver.  The term is a holdover from when most GPLed code was 
written in C (gcc), and doesn't apply as neatly to Java.  I think it would

require case law to resolve the question.

-- 
Lew