Re: Preferred source: a fundamental question was Re: - #859130 ITP: lina

[Albert van der Horst <albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl>]

Paul Wise schreef op 2017-07-04 04:10:
> On Mon, Jul 3, 2017 at 7:34 PM, Albert van der Horst wrote:
>
> > This is of course in the spirit of open source, and it is the
> > "preferred source of modification" for the *target* audience.
>
> "Preferred" in "preferred form of the work for making modifications to
> it" does not refer to downstream consumers of the code, but the form
> that upstream prefers when making modifications.

Okay. That settles it. I always use the .s file to make modifications.
Then at great expense of effort I retrofit the modifications in a kind
of database. [With the benefit of possible having snippets of it 
available
for Windows versions which is outside of Debians skope.]

I give that same freedom to the users of lina by publishing the .s file.

> In this case you have made it clear that the master file is the
> "source code", not the generated assembly. IIRC you mentioned this
> during earlier discussions too and I see on github that your Makefile
> builds the .s files from the internal representation.

If you go too far with that reasoning, the only acceptable source are
git blobs. Let us keep the freedom of making modified versions in mind,
as a practical goal too, not only legalistic. 1]
I know that as far as almost all Debian packages is concerned this 
freedom
has strayed far.
Who modifies gcc to suit his needs? (I did, in 1999, but I wonder
whether I could now.)

<emphasis>
For lina the freedom of modification is not moot. It is totally 
practical
to modify lina for the kind of people who want to use lina. It has been 
done too,
for example Jonesforth.
</emphasis>

> Some posts that you might like to read on this topic:
>
> https://lwn.net/Articles/431566/
> http://www.inventati.org/frx/essays/softfrdm/whatissource.html
> https://b.mtjm.eu/source-code-data-fonts-free-distros.html
> https://wiki.freedesktop.org/www/Games/Upstream/#source
> http://compliance.guide/pristine

I could've written those myself. I'm totally committed to freedom
of source.

Anyway, I'll proceed in this direction and see what a prospective 
sponsor
thinks. If there is no sponsor, the whole matter goes away anyway.

I've made progress with generating a dsc file.

Groetjes Albert

1] I appreciate that Debian has to make rules to implement this.
There is always this tension between the law and justice.

--
Suffering is the prerogative of the strong, the weak -- perish.
Albert van der Horst