[Slackbuilds-users] fmodapi access upstream

[B Watson]

I'm not the fmodapi maintainer, but I'm the gzdoom maintainer...

On 9/5/16, Doogster <thedoogster at gmail.com> wrote:
> The FMOD Ex API downloads are now closed to the public. In order to
> even download them, you need to register on their site and then email

The download URLs in the .info file are:

http://ponce.cc/slackware/sources/repo/fmodapi42817linux.tar.gz
http://ponce.cc/slackware/sources/repo/fmodapi42817linux64.tar.gz

So we already aren't downloading them from upstream's site.

Looking at fmodapi42817linux64/documentation/LICENSE.TXT... My reading
of that version of the license is that it doesn't actually say anything
about redistributing the source to the library. It only talks about
'products' that incorporate the library, which I take to mean binaries,
but I'm DEFINITELY not a lawyer! The lower portion of it (after 'Uses
Ogg Vorbis codec') is the ogg vorbis license, not the fmodapi one.

Either that license allows redistributing the source, or someone's been
violating it for years now with no consequence. I'd say nothing needs
to be changed.

> Note: Brutal DOOM needs GZDoom to be built with FMOD support and set
> up to use the FMOD sound backend.

Does it work with the version of fmodapi on SBo, 4.28.17? I know gzdoom
itself does...

...though the latest version of gzdoom actually can be built without
fmodapi (the older versions couldn't). I was considering removing fmodapi
from the REQUIRES (in fact I'm pretty sure you, Doogster, were the one
who pointed out that it's no longer required). If I do, I'll add a note
to gzdoom's README stating "If you want to play the Brutal Doom mod,
you'll have to build gzdoom with fmodapi" or such. Or I could leave it
in REQUIRES, if it turns out that Brutal Doom is so popular that almost
everyone using gzdoom is using it for Brutal Doom...?

The 'correct' fix for this would be for the Brutal Doom
authors/maintainers to fix their mod so it works without fmodapi. I
have no idea how feasible that would be (maybe there are technical or
political reason why they don't want to do it).