"Andreas Kuckartz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
