On Wed, 13 Aug 2003 03:35:02 +0900 (IRKST), Fedor Zuev <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
said:
> On Tue, 12 Aug 2003, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
JG> Documentation consists of instructions primarily intended to be
JG> human-readable regarding the operation of something such as a
JG> program.
JG> Programs consist of instructions primarily intended to be
JG> machine-readable that either contain machine language binary data
JG> or instructions designed to be interpreted or converted into that
JG> at runtime. Programs will always contain source code or machine
JG> language code, and often both.
MS> Hmmm.
MS> My suggestion:
MS> Software "is a set of statements" primarily intended to perform
MS> some operations on the some set of input information "in order to
MS> bring about a certain result" with this information. Regardless
MS> of the way it does so.
MS> Data "is a set of statements" primarily intended to describe
MS> itself (as such) to a reader, be latter the human or the program.
MS> Regardless of the way it does so.
MS> Data primarily intended to describe itself to human reader is a
MS> documentation.
MS> What do you do if the same collection of bits performs each of
MS> these functions?
> Same bits? Example, please. I do not believe in existence of
> such thing. It would contradict a human psychology.
Then prepare to have your understanding of human psychology
expanded. In the example I posted before, the, the documentation of
the probe lists the access methods and protocols that one can talk to
the probe; this is the documentation part. The sensor parses the same
bits to determine the capabilities of the probe, and publishes that
as data to a central trading service. The very same bits are read by
the generic probe handler, and with an xsl transform, is handed a
series of instructions to deploy the probe. In all these use cases,
exactly the same set of bits is used.
> Maybe, you mean that documentation and software can be
> bundled in the same package, even in the same file? Yes, it can.
Aren't you being a trifle pedantic? How is a file different
from what I originally said, a "collection of bits"?
> There is not a news and not a problem. Different categories of
> "works of autorship" often bundled, and moreover - included each
> other. Book can contain a photos and drawings - but there still a
> difference between graphic and literary works. Movie can include a
> song - but this is not mean that musical and audiovisual works is
> the same thing. Each category has its own legal regime.
I am not talking about bundles -- I am talking about a the
same bits. Even if I were talking about different parts of a file,
are you now arguing that distinguishing between different part of a
file is useful distinction when talking about licenses?
manoj
--
You will forget that you ever knew me.
Manoj Srivastava <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
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