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You know, in case you are working on any competing BASIC for some hot new microcomputer coming into the market later this year.

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Or you know, you decide to bundle it in an emulator for fun not profit, then get sued by Microsoft.

distributing ≠ reading

I was responding to johansch's new trail of thought. He is implying more than reading.

I didn't read it as implying more than reading. Reading alone could get you into trouble if you end up making something similar from scratch. AIUI/IANAL, there's not a legal requirement to implement competing products in a clean room fashion, but it's easier to defend against a lawsuit if your implementers never read the competing code.

Yes I would agree. There is reading as in opening the link and thinking what the hell, glad I don't have to code in assembler. (What I did).

Then there is reading as in opening the link, examining the code, deeply understanding it, then going off and writing your own one 'from scratch'.

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