Re: Software definition, was: A possible GFDL compromise

[bts@alum.mit.edu (Brian T. Sniffen)]

Mathieu Roy <yeupou@gnu.org> writes:

> It's pretty clear. You may claim that the Academie Française and all
> the  French people use a corrupted definition of Logiciel (it's not
> that the etymology would says). But the French language is made by the
> French and by the Academie Française.

But if they Academie defined some word to be a synonym for both
"apple" and "food," they would be unambiguously wrong.  Similarly, to
define some word as a synonym for both "program" and "software" is
misinterpreting the *English* language.  In English, "program" carries
denotation of executability, while "software" often but not always
carries a connotation of executability, but never has such denotation.

-Brian

-- 
Brian T. Sniffen                                        bts@alum.mit.edu
                       http://www.evenmere.org/~bts/