Re: main or contrib?

[Ben Finney <bignose+hates-spam@benfinney.id.au>]

Michael Poole <mdpoole@troilus.org> writes:

> Ben Finney writes:
> > Marco d'Itri <md@Linux.IT> writes:
> >> I am saying that the driver does not "depend" on the firmware
> >> because its functionality does not change if the firmware is
> >> uploaded or not to the hardware device. In both situations the
> >> driver is the same program,
> >
> > "is the same program" != "functionality does not change"
>
> So what?

Marco is implying that "is the same program" logically leads to
"functionality does not change", and thus if the program is the same
program without the firmware then it does not depend on that
firmware. (If he's not, I can't see how to interpret what he's written
otherwise.)

This is trivially not true: A shell program is the same program if the
shell is changed, but that change can clearly lead to radically
different functionality for the program. It's not true to say that
because the shell program remains "the same program", that it doesn't
depend on a particular shell.

Likewise, if a program will behave markedly differently in the absence
of a firmware program, to the point that it becomes useless without
it, it's still the same program; but it still depends on that firmware
program.

-- 
 \        "We have to go forth and crush every world view that doesn't |
  `\             believe in tolerance and free speech."  -- David Brin |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney