Re: snippets

[Dylan Thurston <dpt@math.harvard.edu>]

On 2003-09-29, Richard Braakman <dark@xs4all.nl> wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 29, 2003 at 10:01:19AM -0400, Jeremy Hankins wrote:
>> * If the answer to the above is no, should we distribute them anyway,
>>   simply because we don't have them in a free form?
>
> Hi.  I think my first reply to this mail didn't get to my actual point.
>
> I think your question here is the wrong way around.  These snippets are
> present in the stuff we package.  The question is whether they're worth
> removing, not whether they're worth distributing.
>
> What are the advantages of keeping them?
> ...
> What are the advantages of removing them?
> ...
> I don't see a convincing case here for removing them.

Agreed that on the face of it there isn't much gained on a practical
level by removing these snippets.  However, can you go back and answer
your same questions for code snippets?  For comparisons sake, the code
should be:

* Non-modifiable but removable;
* Completely incidental to the main purpose of the package (maybe it
  shows a clever about box, or provides some amusing extra feature like
  the waving-man-in-the-menu that was apparently consider for the
  original Mac, or is an entirely separate program which is humorous
  added value along the lines of sex.6);
* Bug-free; and
* Close to the upstream author's heart.

What's the convincing case for removing this, if any, and if you would
remove it, how would you distinguish from the text snippets case?

(Apologies that this is hypothetical, but I hope the examples above
are plausible enough that you can answer the question.)

Peace,
	Dylan