Bug#236721: Squeak in Debian main

["Lex Spoon" <lex@lexspoon.org>]

"Andreas Kuckartz" <A.Kuckartz@ping.de> wrote:
> > (4) The distributed files squeak.changes and squeak.image, both around
> > 10MB, are shipped in binary form. I wonder if there should be source
> > code to create them initially. (See DFSG.2, "Source Code")
> 
> The .changes file contains Smalltalk source code (if the system is not
> broken!).
> 
> I think that one can argue that there exists nothing really comparable
> to the .image files used by Smalltalk-80 systems for other programming
> languages. Those .image-files exist since at least 25 years and in my
> opinion they are an important aspect of the Smalltalk-80 way of doing
> things. In some way it is comparable to a living organism.
> 

A key observation for the present discussion: an image/changes pair is a
perfectly valid form of ultimate source code for a Squeak developer. 
There is no earlier, more fundamental source code that Squeak developers
use.  Alan Kay himself hacks image/changes pairs when he develops new
things for Squeak.

The only reason these might not look like source code is that they are
not fully in a text format.  However, there does not seem to be any
fundamental reason to insist that source code is textual.

While I cannot find anything in Debian policy about this (only
discussions of the topic), OSI carefully declines to mention text as
either necessary or sufficient for a definition of source code.  Here is
the relevant part of OSI's open-source definition:

"The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in
source code as well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is
not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means
of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable reproduction
cost preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The source
code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the
program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed.
Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator
are not allowed."
(item 2 of OSI's Open Source Definition)

Finally, I cannot resist a followon to Andreas' accurate comments. 
*All* source code is organic, evolving, and comparable to a living
organism.  Not even Linus Torvalds could duplicate Linux if you locked
him in a room with no Internet access.  Code is grown.


-Lex