TADS 3 Source on Github?

It looks like the source files are here:

ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archive … ource.html

Is there any compelling reason these couldn’t be put on GitHub? I’ve seen people suggesting that “if only TADS was open sourced” maybe something more could be done with it. But it looks like it is open source unless I’m misunderstanding what I’m seeing. Maybe seeking Mike’s permission is needed but the source is available so it seems odd not to at least make it more visible to people.

TADS is not strictly free software/open source - the original TADS license prohibits selling the software, and is not modification friendly.

However apparently at some time Michael Roberts said that it could be distributed under the GPL 2 license. That’s how both QTads and Gargoyle distribute it.

While there isn’t a dedicated repository for TADS, the code is available on Github:

For TADS and other systems without a proper Github home, using cspeigel (cas on this forum)'s terps repo could be a good place to send any patches.

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Sorry to necro this thread but does this apply to the full source code for the tads compiler and virtual machine? Do we still think this holds true and stuff? Because both @inventor200 and I have been really wanting to dive into the tads code base and learn how it works and start slowly working on improving it and making new releases but we’ve been holding off because the license we’ve seen is not friendly to people other than MJR himself improving tads.

Even if this doesn’t hold true, considering MJR has seemingly stepped away from the community and isn’t available to contact, and we’d really like to pick up where he left off, what options are available to us at this point?

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I sure hope there’s a way forward! I’d potentially help if there were clear tasks to be assigned… I know a little C++…

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Only the runner to my knowledge. But if MJR were asked again maybe he’d be willing to GPL license the compiler too.

Since this topic was last updated, the home of the TADS runner has moved to

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I tried sending him an email about this a few days ago, hopefully he responds!

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I’d really appreciate clarification on all aspects of TADS licensing from Michael Roberts.

I want to make a game in Adv3Lite and run a server with a modified version of the TADS 3 engine (to support server side rendering). I’m not sure if I could a) legally do this or b) charge for it.

The whole situation is confusing.

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I really wish we could get ahold of him if only for one last time so he could make TADS FOSS

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