Re: snippets
Richard Braakman <dark@xs4all.nl> writes:
> 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?
>
> - The time and effort that would be spent on locating and removing them
> and maintaining a repackaged source archive can instead be spent on
> writing code and fixing bugs.
> - We maintain better relations with upstream authors, who presumably
> would like their heartrending emails to accompany their work.
> - We can keep more source archives pristine.
>
> What are the advantages of removing them?
>
> - We save some bytes in the archive.
> - If a snippet turns out to be problematic, we won't have to spend effort
> on removing it because we already spent that effort.
> - We might convince some authors to write modifiable snippets instead.
You neglect "Debian is 100% Free Software" as an advantage of
removing them, which is why you don't see a convincing case:
> I don't see a convincing case here for removing them.
It is not uncommon to be unconvinced when all convincing arguments
have been neglected.
-Brian
--
Brian T. Sniffen bts@alum.mit.edu
http://www.evenmere.org/~bts/
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