Re: What RMS says about standards (was: [rms@gnu.org: Re: Questions regarding free documentation.]
Hi,
>>"Joey" == Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net> writes:
Joey> Manoj Srivastava wrote:
>> I agree. I also say it applies to licenses as well. If not,
>> please provide reasons (which I shall turn around and use for
>> standards, then).
Joey> In an ideal world it'd apply to licenses. We don't live in that
Joey> world and if we insited on requiring this anyway, debian would
Joey> not be a usable distribution (because it would contain ~ 0
Joey> packages). Insiting on this for standards does not harm the
Joey> usability of debian to the same degree.
So now it is not a matter of principples, but of pragmaticism?
In which case I say it is also in Debians interest to disseminate
stgandards like the FSSTND, and documents like the social contract. I
would certainly not like Debian to be known as the "distribution that
refuses to incorporate standards".
This seems really hypocritical, underhanded, and wishy washy
of us to flip flop from a position of high priciples to fawning
pragmaticism depending on which document we are talking about.
I think the near consensus we achieved in the policy group
(Marcus does not agree) about a verbatim area, and which I think is
required anyway for the other document categories (attached below),
is a good place to keep the standards and the GPL. It won't be in
main, and that answers the demands from people who want nothing
non-modifiable in main.
manoj
--
If you always postpone pleasure you will never have it. Quit work
and play for once!
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@acm.org> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
Key C7261095 fingerprint = CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05 CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E
3. Types and categories of Documents considered
-----------------------------------------------
Documentation for software
Technical documentation describes the behaviour, usage, and
configuration details about a specific piece of code. It may also
be instructions about how to modify or extend the software.
(Users manuals, etc) Examples include the GIMP Users Manual, the
GCC Internals guide, any source-code written with "literate
programming" tools, etc.
A Standards document
A standard describes is a common set of standard interfaces,
formats, rules, application programming interfaces, common
practice, conventions, etc, that other people are supposed to
comply with in order to facilitate interoperability, consistancy,
or some other public goal outside of the scope of one program or
developer.. Generally, this has the fax-like law: one or two
people adopting it is not of much value, a million people
adopting it and it comes into its own.
Personal opinions
Opinions of a person, whether technical or otherwise, essays,
open letters, USENET postings (assuming proper permission for
redistributin has been obtained, of course).
Works of fiction
Books, novels, essays, short stories, etc. The project Gutenburg
has a collection of works fo fiction for whom the copyright has
expired, there are tohers that give the right of redistribution
with certain restrictions.
Poetry
Defined as imaginative language or composition, whether expressed
rhythmically or in prose. Specifically: Metrical composition;
verse; rhyme; poems collectively; as, heroic poetry; dramatic
poetry; lyric or Pindaric poetry.
Magazines and graphic novels
These are publications where the layout is as important as the
contents. Graphic novels are rapidly gaining mainstream approval,
and there are already contless web-zines and other magazines
distributed purely electronically, and already Debian has several
such mags packaged up.
Art work, paintings, Images, Photographs
Rendered, ray traced, or hand created usig the GIMP, photographs,
line drawings: these are going to become more and more common.
Technical Opinion
Documents which state the opinion of a particular person or group
in relation to a technical matter. Unlike standards, this
material is not binding in an of itself, but serves rather to
influence technical decisions or to explain why or how a
particular technical decision was made. Examples include the FYI
series or RFCs, judicial opinions, NTSB crash investigation
reports, etc.
Instructional material
Documents which are written to teachtechnical material. Unlike
software documentation, this material need not be specific to a
particular piece of software, or even of software itself.
Examples: The guided-walk-through sections of the Kernel Hacker's
Guide, physics textbooks, US Department of Defence field manuals
on the proper way to brush one's teeth, etc.
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