Updated GNU Framework Tries To Push "Free JavaScript"

Out this Sunday is a major update to GNU ease.js, which relicenses this JavaScript framework to the GPLv3 and has several other changes. GNU ease.js helps the Free Software Foundation's case for the "importance of free JavaScript" on the web.

GNU ease.js is a classic, object-oriented framework for JavaScript. The developers say that ease.js helps in transitioning to JavaScript from other OOP languages and provides simple/intuitive class definitions, classical inheritance, and other features for JavaScript. With today's GNU ease.js 0.2.0 release, the code has been relicensed from the LGPLv3+ to the GPLv3+, has a few bug-fixes, offers preview support for trains as maxins, ease.js now uses Autotools, and the older LGPL'ed code is now unmaintained.

In terms of why ease.js was relicensed from the LGPLv3+ to GPLv3+, the lead developer wrote, "I chose to license ease.js under the GPLv3+ because I believe that non-free JavaScript should be eliminated, not enabled. Please help to spread the word and join me in writing free JavaScript; without it, we will have an Internet that is locked away from free software users; this is not the spirit in which the Internet was created."

Those JavaScript developers curious for more information on this GNU JavaScript project can see this morning's mailing list release announcement and their project site.

GNU ease.js is a helper in the Free Software Foundation's campaign against non-free JS code on the web. "Web pages increasingly include JavaScript code, which raises the same ethical concerns as software written in any other language: Non-free JavaScript can rob you of your right to study, modify, and share the software that you are running. Unlike traditional software, JavaScript usually enters your machine without prompting and often without your knowledge---the simple act of visiting a web page may install and execute a non-free program within your web browser." Those curious about the Free Software Foundation's JavaScript campaign can read Richard Stallman's web-page entitled The JavaScript Trap.