[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

A new practical problem with invariant sections?



Anton Zinoviev wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 09, 2006 at 01:19:58PM -0800, Thomas Bushnell BSG wrote:

> We have already discussed many examples, if you have some new example
> you are welcome to share it with us. :-)

I don't recall the following example being brought up.

Let's assume a manual, written by in Japanese, with Japanese invariant
sections. Someone translates this manual to English. The translator, of
course, leaves the Japanese invariant section intact.

Now, I'd like to download this (translated) manual and place it on a
portable device I own, so I can easily read it without killing a bunch
of trees. I think this is clearly a useful modification, and I think
that I should be able to do this for a DFSG-free work.

But, there is a problem: My portable device understands only ASCII, or
maybe ISO-8859-1 if I'm lucky (at least in the US, this is pretty
common). It doesn't understand UTF-8, Shift-JIS, etc. It is not
technically possible to keep the Japanese invariant section.

I believe this gives a notable, practicle reason why invariant sections
are not free.



Reply to: