Why upgrade? I'm not a lawyer, but here's my take on the differences
to version 2:
* Software patents: better protection against abuse of patents to
prevent users from exercising the rights under the GPL. I doubt
we'll get hit with a patent suit, but it's a good move just on
general principles.
* License compatibility: compatible with more free licenses, i.e. can
"steal" more free software for use in Empire. I don't expect to steal
much, but it's nice to have the option.
* Definition of "source code": modernization of some details for today's
networked world, to make it easier to distribute the software. Not
really relevant to us now, as we normally distribute full source code.
* Tivoization: this is about putting GPL-licensed software in hardware,
then make the hardware refuse to run modified software. "Neat" trick
to effectively deny its users their rights under the GPL. Abuse was
"pioneered" by TiVo (popular digital video recorders). GPLv3 forbids
it. Unlikely to become a problem for us.
* Internationalization: more careful wording, to harden the license
outside the US. The lawyers tell us it better be done that way.
* License violations: friendlier way to deal with license violations.
This has come out of past experience enforcing the GPL.
* Additional permissions: Probably not relevant to us.
Also include myself in the list of principal authors.
other. Ensure headers in include/ can be included in any order
(except for econfig-spec.h, which is special). New header types.h to
help avoid inclusion cycles. Sort include directives. Remove some
superflous includes.
I_BAR, I_FOOD, I_OIL, I_LCM, I_HCM, I_UW, I_RAD, I_MAX): Turn macros
into enumeration constants.
(i_type): New. Use where appropriate. No functional changes, except
that I_NONE is now catched properly in a few places.
member com_type from mnemo character to item type.
(whichitem): Unused, remove.
(check_market): Use full item name instead of mnemo in telegrams.
(display_mark): Separate arguments for item type and cheapest only.
Cheapest only of specific item type is not implemented.
(rese): Guard against bad com_type. Delete some code that had no
effect.
display_mark() to callers. buy() no longer accepts "all". It used to
display all lots, but didn't let you buy any. Similar nonsense
happened for "" if buy() prompted for it.
(display_mark): Fix size of cheapest_items[].
(player_coms): Document mark accepting "all".
(genitem_ca, ship_ca, plane_ca, land_ca): Remove selector "sell".
(comstr, trdstr): Members trd_price, com_price have no effect. Use
them instead of trd_maxprice, com_maxprice and remove the latter.
(commodity_ca, trade_ca): Remove selector "maxprice".
instead of declaring them all over the place. This uncovered type
errors:
(s_p_etu, adj_update): Defined long, sometimes declared int. Kills
big endian machines where sizeof(long) != sizeof(int). Change to
int.
(set_option, delete_option, optstrset, intset, floatset, doubleset,
longset, optionset, optiondel, worldxset): Change linkage to static.
thread entrypoints:
(lwpSelect, shutdown_sequence): Parameters didn't match thread entry
point prototype.
(lwpEntryPoint): Arguments didn't match thread entry point prototype.
Change linkage of functions without prototype declaration to static
where possible.
Remove some superflous declarations, replace others by suitable
includes.