On Jun 19, 2006, at 8:55 PM, Mathieu Bouchard wrote:
On Fri, 16 Jun 2006, Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
An application is a binary, and the source code is all the files
needed to produce that binary given a set of tools.What's a "binary" ?...
the word "binary" was subverted to mean "non-text" where it's
assumed that text is some version of ASCII. However, so-called
"binaries" contain a segment called "text" which is native machine
code (just ask /usr/bin/size about it...)if the application is a text file, then is it really an
application?... and then, can that text file be the source code at
once?if the thing called source code is made of text but has been
generated by some tool, is it still possible to call it source code?What if the source file is not ASCII-based? (e.g. Microsoft's BASIC
or IRCAM's jMAX)
That is something that does need to be worked out in the legalese,
but I am not a lawyer and I think everyone understands what I mean.
But I would like to see a license requires people to share their
sources of whatever. That's what I want to license my content under:
a GPL for everything.
.hc
"[W]e have invented the technology to eliminate scarcity, but we are
deliberately throwing it away to benefit those who profit from
scarcity." -John Gilmore