> But even for documentation written by hand, often I find that I'd like to > start out with some comment or example from the actual code. The GPL / GFDL > dichotomy doesn't allow me to do that, so some documentation just won't get > written.
Taking an example from actual code would be "fair use" and not a violation of the GPL. I don't see a problem there. Taking large pieces of code in a mechanical way is completely different from the type of manual copying you're talking about.