On Thu, 2 Nov 2006 09:37:19 +0100 Arnoud Engelfriet wrote: > Francesco Poli wrote: > > On Wed, 1 Nov 2006 18:38:34 +0100 Arnoud Engelfriet wrote: > > > But if I release a .ps file, it would be output from > > > LaTeX and so it seems reasonable to insist that the software isn't > > > free until the .tex file is available. > > > > In cases where the PostScript file is generated from LaTeX code, the > > latter is probably the source form (again by the "preferred form" > > definition). > > That's what I would think. But consider this example. I write > texts in a homebrewed XML format, which makes little sense for > anyone but me. Obviously I prefer to use that format. I have an > XSLT transformation to make it HTML, and I distribute that HTML > version of the texts. Is that source? No, since you prefer the XML form, that is the source code. If someone else prefers the HTML, he/she can apply the transformation and go on modifying the generated HTML: at that point, the source *for the modified version* is in HTML format! > > Should a programmer who writes FORTRAN release that code, or the > automated conversion to C? Fortran, of course, as he/she apparently prefers to write in that language. > > I guess it's similar to the old XCF versus JPEG/GIF/PNG debate. > I would say it depends on the intended use of the file. If the > layers and other information in the XCF is no longer relevant, the > PNG is just as much the source as the XCF. If the file is actually modified and maintained in PNG format, then that is obviously the source code, whatever other format was used in the past to generate an initial working version. If, on the other hand, the file is modified in XCF format, then, no way, XCF is the source form. It's always the same definition: "the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it"... > If it's likely that people want to edit :-? Anything missing in this sentence? -- But it is also tradition that times *must* and always do change, my friend. -- from _Coming to America_ ..................................................... Francesco Poli . GnuPG key fpr == C979 F34B 27CE 5CD8 DC12 31B5 78F4 279B DD6D FCF4
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