On Wed, Apr 21, 2004 at 02:23:11AM -0400, Nathanael Nerode wrote: > > > If you want to be more serious, there is the FPGA example. Is a > > *hardware* definition software? AFAIK, a FPGA definition (which may be > > very well what you are loading) is just "hmm, connect this port's output > > in input #1 of this other port, etc, etc, etc." > Duh, of course the *definition* is software. Any stream of bits is > software. *Any* stream of bits? I think that's going a bit far. I think you are confusing the algorithm with the input. The input is not software. It cannot be executed on a machine. An algorithm can operate on a binary string input, but the input cannot cause the machine to act outside of what behavior is defined in the algorithm. Is a PNG file considered software? Is it not DFSG-free if the source .EPS is not included? What about a WAV? It was rendered from a non-free commercial soundfont set which nevertheless places no restriction on the distribution of digital audio works rendered with that set. Is it non-free because it doesn't include the source instruments? What if the instruments were described in software ala Csound? Then we need not only the source instruments for the wav, but the Csound code for the instruments, in order to not have a non-free dependency. This is ridiculous. Extending the definition of software past "a set of formal instructions for a general purpose computing device, that describe an algorithm that runs on the device to transform an input string into an output string", is not productive IMO. This is a problem when you take into account the social contract. It states that Debian must remain 100% free software. The implication, depending on how you read it, is either that "Debian is comprised of nothing but software, and all of it is free"; or that "all software contained in Debian is free". Those are two quite different claims that can be derived from the same statement. It is ambiguous and should be revised, because I doubt anyone could make a convincing case that Debian is comprised of nothing but software. That seems to be the interpretation that many folks are running with though. -- Ryan Underwood, <nemesis@icequake.net>
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