First off, sorry for starting off an old discussion. I've been away for the past two weeks. [If any one cares, there are pictures available on my website.] On Wed, 06 Aug 2003, Sergey V. Spiridonov wrote: > So, if you find a definition which makes no difference between > software and documentation, please send it on this list. > > There is a difference, even if someone doesn't want to see it. There clearly is a difference, otherwise we wouldn't need two words for the concept. However, you still have not brought forward a definition that adequately draws a bright line to distinguish between software and documentation. That is, at what point does software stop being software and become documentation, and vice versa? Without such a definition, people who hold that documentation should be treated differently from software can't easily formulate the extra restrictions that documentation can impose that are unexceptable for software to impose. If you read the archives, there have been numerous examples of cases where the documentation itself actually becomes a pice of software. In some of my programs, the documentation is so tightly coupled with the software (POD, (perldoc perlpod for those not familiar with perl documentation)) that it exists in the very same file. Don Armstrong -- "There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence." -- Jeremy S. Anderson http://www.donarmstrong.com http://www.anylevel.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu
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