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Re: What do you guys think about #244276?



On Thu, Jul 15, 2004 at 04:32:58PM -0700, Martin Quinson wrote:
> #244276 is a RC bug against a litteral program (tex4ht). The question is to
> know whether distributing a preprocessed source file is a source code
> obfuscation, and thus a obstruction to the source code modification or
> whatever. In other word, does the DFSG allows such thing?

The most common definition I've seen for "source" is the GPL's: "preferred
form for modification".  (This isn't necessarily the one Debian must use,
but it's the most sane and real-world one I know of, and probably by far
the most well-accepted and well-tested one.)

At least by that definition, and from a reading of the bug log, this
preprocessed code is not source; it is not what the upstream author
prefers to use to modify the work.

(I don't know anything about literate programming; I'm merely going from
the bug log.)

> See for instance,
> http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2001/11/msg00009.html

This is a message about the GFDL, not literate programming; lacking any
knowledge of literate programming, I can't tell how it relates.

-- 
Glenn Maynard



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