On Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:05:45 +1100 Ben Finney <ben+debian@benfinney.id.au> wrote: > Neil Williams <codehelp@debian.org> writes: > > > On Fri, 20 Mar 2009 08:33:41 +1100 > > Ben Finney <ben+debian@benfinney.id.au> wrote: > > > > > I find the structure [in the proposed copyright file format] makes > > > it far easier to write and check than the free-form chaos of many > > > existing files. What would you have removed from the format to > > > reduce the time for writing and checking it? > > > > I completely disagree - the current version of the wiki page is > > utterly incomprehensible and inconsistent. > > That's a non sequitur; the morass of discussion on that wiki page > *obscures* the format for someone trying to read it, but is not *part > of* the format. The format itself has (IMO) the properties I > described. Without being able to read and understand the page, the format is completely invisible. Therefore, the structure in the proposed file format makes it impossible to write or check copyright files because the format itself is invisible. I disagree that the structure is easier to write or check than the free-form existing files because there is no structure that I can identify. There is no clear, concise and usable description of "properties" that is identifiable in the current page or anywhere else I've found so far. It's been lost in the edits. > > It's no wonder that maintainers coming to debian-mentors are > > confused. > > Certainly, but only (I argue) because the wiki page is currently a > mess. The wiki page is all anyone has right now. It would probably be better to remove it and do whatever work is still required offline (or at least off the wiki) until those who profess to understand it can come up with a different document that the rest of us can actually read. > The page mentions, in several places now, the desire to set up a > discussion forum to continue the discussion away from the page; once > that's set up I'll be happy to pitch in and clear the weeds from that > page. In the meantime, I think that the whole idea has been drowned in wiki-overload. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.data-freedom.org/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/ http://e-mail.is-not-s.ms/
Attachment:
pgpREVp0DXhJu.pgp
Description: PGP signature