Re: Social Contract GR's Affect on sarge
On Fri, Apr 30, 2004 at 02:03:24PM +0200, Davide G. M. Salvetti wrote:
> It might not be something you are willing to accept, but Ted is right:
> editing a font with a bitmap editor is exactly the same thing as editing
> a firmware with an hex-editor.
I don't think this is the right analogy, since there have been fairly
strong assertions that some firmware is, in fact, created and edited
entirely in hex.
"Editing a font with a bitmap editor" simply doesn't make sense, any
more than editing firmware with a bitmap editor--it's not a bitmap.
(Of course, both fonts and firmware might contain bitmaps in addition
to the more interesting algorithmic data/code.)
> My _*personal*_ interpretation of the term "software" as used in the
> original DFSG is that it applies to algorithms intended to be run on the
> Debian system. I'm opposed to blindly applying it to data in general.
What do you mean by "applies"? It does apply to data in general. This
isn't a matter of opinion; it *does* apply to data in general--the recent
GR made this extremely clear and explicit.
If you meant "was originally intended to apply to", that's incorrect; the
original drafter of the document has made that clear.
Did you mean "I don't believe it should apply to"?
(Sorry for the semantic nitpicking, but I'm simply not sure what it is
you intended to say.)
--
Glenn Maynard
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