[Gcl-devel] Re: GCL compliance and Bill Schelter

[Richard Stallman]

    I would make the analogy that in C one uses a linker to combine compiler
    output and libraries to create a "save-system" image runnable binary.
    Lisp combines compiler output and the lisp runtime (essentially a big
    library) to create a "save-system" image. The linker just happens to
    be internal to the interpreter.

I think that is entirely uncontroversial.  The GPL doesn't refer to
specific technical details of how programs are combined into something
larger--those details don't matter.

    It must be possible to write a GPLed Common Lisp language supporting
    this common feature that allows users to write in Common Lisp without
    being GPLed. Without this proviso it will not be possible to write
    Common Lisp code in any other "free" license.

All GPL-compatible free software licenses are ok for linking with
GPL-covered code, for any kind of linking.