Re: Intent to mass-file bugs: FDL/incorrect copyright files
On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 16:45:00 +1100, Hamish Moffatt <hamish@debian.org> said:
> On Thu, Nov 18, 2004 at 04:59:36PM -0600, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
>> On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 22:51:42 +1100, Hamish Moffatt
>> <hamish@debian.org> said:
>> > On Wed, Nov 17, 2004 at 09:37:01PM -0600, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
>> >> -- If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a
>> >> nail. Maslow
>>
>> > Your post above demonstrates this aptly.
>>
>> And how so, pray tell? What is the "hammer" I have that leads me to
>> classify computer related entities as a) software, b) hardware, or
>> c) wetware?
> The hammer is your extremely limited vocabulary for classifying
> computer-related things. Suddenly you've classified everything as
> software and lost any subtlety of documentation versus programs
> versus data etc.
There is a reason. You can't come up with a classification
criteria that can sensibly classify entities at this finer
granularity. Here is a quote from an old discussion:
,----[ Rigid subclassification of software ]
| OK. I have a program (for my day job), where we have pluggable
| probes deployed by a sensor program, as and when the sensor deems
| fit. Initially, the sensor does not know how many probes have been
| installed on the local machine, it goes out and discovers the number
| and nature of the probes in an initial resource discovery phase.
|
| Each probe, when installed, installs an XML document that can
| be converted into HTML or PDF by applying a sinple xsl transform;
| this is where all the documentation oabout the probe lives.
|
| This files is, then documentation, no?
|
| The sensor reads the same file, applies another xsl transform,
| and gets to know the capabilities of the probe, and how to classify
| it, and publishes the data to a central trading service.
|
| The file is configuration data, no?
|
| Now, when a request for data comes in, a generic probe handler
| is deployed, which reads the same file, applies a transform, and is
| handed a seris of instructions on how to deploy the probe and
| commuunicate with it.
|
| This file is program code, no?
|
| To recap, the documentation of the probe lists the access
| methods and protocols that one can talk to the probe; this is the
| documentation part. The sensor parses the same bits to determine the
| capabilities of the probe, and publishes that as data to a central
| trading service. The very same bits are read by the generic probe
| handler, and with an xsl transform, is handed a series of
| instructions to deploy the probe. In all these use cases, exactly the
| same set of bits is used.
|
| Second case: The page http://www.stdc.com/QMS/documentation/
| belongs to an old project of mine; could you tell the documentation
| apart from the code? I can also send, on request, the full set of man
| pages generated (I think there are 350+ man pages, so attaching them
| to this mail is going to be a problem for many people). (For the
| record, the source code -- the .h and .cpp files -- are the sole
| sources of the HTML pages you see at that URL).
|
| You disambiguate my program for me, and I'll believe there
| are rigid classifications of software which are feasible.
`----
manoj
--
All generalizations are false, including this one. Mark Twain
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
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