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.
New pln_att(), pln_def(), pln_acc(), pln_range_max(), pln_load()
replace the struct plnstr members with the same names.
Make plane selectors att and def virtual.
The macros defining unit stat development in tech are somewhat
inconvenient to use. Define more convenient functions, and hide away
the macros near the function definitions.
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.
files ship.config, plane.config, land.config, nuke.config.
(empfile): Declare the new config files.
(install, installdirs): Install them.
(builtins): New make variable.
Useless, remove. Users changed to check plchr's sentinel, because
that's clearer than comparing the index to N_MAXPLANE or sizeof(plchr)
/ sizeof(*plchr).
(plchr): Change sentinel's pl_name to NULL.