Wouter Verhelst wrote: > On Tue, Apr 27, 2004 at 07:20:26PM +0200, Thiemo Seufer wrote: > > Thomas Hood wrote: > > > I don't think that this debate will terminate because I don't think > > > that it is possible to come up with a definition that will decide > > > every case. There is a clear difference between programs and data in > > > many familiar computing situations; in other situations there is no > > > clear difference. > > > > Name one such situation. > > Consider a source code file that has Doxygen-style comments intertwined > with it. Is that file source (i.e., a program), or is it documentation? A program which includes also documentation. :-) > Consider a webserver with static pages, but static pages that are full > of JavaScript. From the viewpoint of the webserver, are those pages > programs, or data? For the webserver, it is data. For the clients, they are programs. The answer depends on how you define your environment. > Consider the already beaten-to-death horse of firmware. When compiled > into the kernel, is firmware a program, or is it data? For the host CPU, it is data. For the daughtercard, it is probably a program. > In all three of these situtations, many will argue one; many others will > argue the other. It is hard, if not impossible, to come up with a > definition of "programs" vs "data" that is not problematic. If you define the environment first, it is rather simple. If you can't or won't define the environment, it is impossible to give a correct answer. That's the problem for Debian, because it makes no sense to define a static environment for it. Thiemo
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