Skip to content

Record whether an experiment may bring in code under another licence #180

Description

@iderex

Entry two of #46 is answered, and this issue writes the answer down where a
decision lives. The answer, decided 2026-08-24: an experiment may bring in code
under a licence the answer to entry one does not match, only in a quarantined
directory with its own licence file.

The reason is where the footgun ends up sitting. Allowing it with nothing but a
declaration in the experiment record puts a directory that is not under this
board's licence somewhere in a tree that reads as uniform, and somebody
promoting the work later has to notice it at the exact moment they are least
careful. Forbidding it outright makes a real class of question unaskable here,
and the questions that begin with existing code are a class this board wants.
The quarantined directory keeps those questions askable and makes the boundary
visible in the layout rather than resting on somebody's attention.

The cost is a layout rule that has to be taught and a check that has to be
maintained. That check is ordinary gate work in this tree rather than a new
apparatus, which is why the cost was judged payable, and the record says so
rather than leaving the reader to assume it.

The record has to say what the quarantined directory is called, where its
licence file sits, and what the experiment record declares about it, because a
rule about a layout that does not name the layout cannot be followed. It also
has to say plainly that nothing in this repository refuses a violation today, if
that is still true when it is written, so that the rule is not mistaken for a
gate.

What section three has to list: allowing it anywhere with a declaration in the
experiment record, and forbidding it entirely. Section four says what each would
have cost, and entry two of #46 sets both out.

Done when docs/decisions/0019-code-under-another-licence.md exists on the
default branch, carries the four sections record 0000 fixes, names the
quarantined directory and its licence file, says what the experiment record
declares, states the teaching and maintenance cost, and lists in sections three
and four both rejected options with what each would have cost.

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

documentationImprovements or additions to documentationplanning

Type

No type

Projects

No projects

Relationships

None yet

Development

No branches or pull requests

Issue actions