Richard Kenner wrote:
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.
Not so fast - I know I got mighty suspicious of claims by non-lawyers
about copyright issues by reading groklaw.net for over five years, but
consider the following:
If you point your browser at:
http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-3.4.6/g77/Table-of-Intrinsic-Functions.html#Table-of-Intrinsic-Functions
you'll see literally up to a hundred entries of documentation that were
generated in the following way:
1. There is a definition file that documents the interfaces to Fortran
run time libraries (a GPL'd file).
2. There is a program (GPL'd) that generates:
a. texinfo documentation from them, that ultimately leads to the web
pages you view (GPL'd - in the old days).
b. in addition, it generates the interfaces to the Fortran run-time
libraries (which were LGPL'd, if I recall correctly).
In this way, we were sure that the documentation of the g77 run time
library was commensurate with its implementation - more than once it has
saved us from expensive debugging exercises to conclude that *yes* the
implementation didn't match the documentation (or the standard, if the
docs deviate from the standard).
The GFDL/GPL dichotomy makes this scheme impossible.
--
Toon Moene - e-mail: t...@moene.org - phone: +31 346 214290
Saturnushof 14, 3738 XG Maartensdijk, The Netherlands
At home: http://moene.org/~toon/; weather: http://moene.org/~hirlam/
Progress of GNU Fortran: http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-4.5/changes.html#Fortran
