-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 3 Dec 2002, Thomas Bushnell, BSG wrote:
> Documentation *must* change to adapt to software, if the software can > change. Well, if we're going to be as strongly judgmental as that, I'ld much rather it were expressed the right way round -- software *must* change to conform to the freedom to modify digitally-encoded documents. (Whatever may be represented by the encoding -- procedures described in natural or formal language; time-based audio or video documents; three-dimensional objects scanned in as a series of co-ordinates -- etc. In their digitally-encoded form, all are no more than 'documents'.) This of course requires the renaming and re-couching of terminology of DFSG (Debian Free Software Guidelines) to DFDG (Debian Free Document Guidelines) -- software in its digital form being a document like any other -- and I hereby propose that this be done. Seriously. It's about time we moved forward on this to be as comprehensive as possible. > I write free software *and* English prose, and I have made sure that > the English prose *is* freely modifiable, provided proper credit and > change notification takes place. Likewise. [I also write copyrighted material.] We have no difference of opinion -- just a different skew on our individual viewpoints. You would appear to be software-centric; I am quite definitely document-centric. (In other words, I don't care quite quite so much about the document content. As long as I am allowed to examine it and if so desired, modify it. And this for those documents, and *only* those documents which I or others choose to release under a 'free' licence.) Comments, folks? Regards, - -- Martin Wheeler - StarTEXT / AVALONIX - Glastonbury - BA6 9PH - England [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://startext.demon.co.uk/ GPG pub key : 8D6B948B ECC6 D98E 4CC8 60E3 7E32 D594 BB27 3368 8D6B 948B - Share your knowledge. It's a way of achieving immortality. - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE97kHSuyczaI1rlIsRAjGtAJ0ZtM2E/x5h8maAc8xkJYbT0dilQACcDNNS adm5N4rmkrPAaDV6YdX1+hg= =xvoO -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
