Yev Bronshteyn:
> Your use case seems to be already covered by the current SPDX 2.1 spec. With 
> the new filesAnalyzed attribute on packages, we can now describe packages, 
> with all their optional metadata richness without going into their contents. 
> Here is an example of that use case: A package is being described that has a 
> static dependency on Apache Commons:
> https://bitbucket.org/yevster/spdxtraxample/src/HEAD/sampleSpdx/1packageWithStaticLink.rdf

But I don't want to analyze *any* files, so for my use case a filesAnalyzed 
attribute is irrelevant (as I understand it).  I have a different purpose.  I 
want to express that "I, the human developing this software, release the 
software under license X".  I don't want to report on a third-party analysis; I 
want to make a first-person assertion.  But since both situations involve 
making license statements, we can all build on the common vocabulary of SPDX.

By the way, that SPDX file is a good argument *against* the direct use of SPDX 
use by developers.  It's excessively complex.  I think you're thinking of the 
SPDX file as an output format for a tool.  And that's great - it's clearly what 
the SPDX developers had in mind.  Enjoy!  Don't lose that capability!

However, I want to also be able to use human-generated SPDX file as *input* to 
tools, *not* only as an output, as a way to express the license granted by the 
humans.  Most developers just want to say "my license is <SPDX license 
expression>."  One line would be enough.  A few simple lines, at most.  
Anything longer than about 7 +/- 2 simple lines is too long - it needs to fit 
in your head, since this is *generated* by humans.  For this use case many of 
the "mandated" terms should be optional, and I expect that XML would almost 
never be used.  Different use case, different constraints, but I think we can 
*all* work within a single spec.

--- David A. Wheeler

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