From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Richard M. Stallman" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel,gmane.mail.mh-e.devel Subject: Re: MH-E manual update Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2005 11:18:55 -0500 Message-ID: References: <27306.1134088031@olgas.newt.com> <21266.1134174346@olgas.newt.com> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1134232208 5446 80.91.229.2 (10 Dec 2005 16:30:08 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2005 16:30:08 +0000 (UTC) Cc: eliz@gnu.org, mh-e-devel@lists.sourceforge.net, emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Dec 10 17:30:06 2005 Return-path: Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1El7aY-0005zg-Cd for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 10 Dec 2005 17:28:46 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1El7aw-0003oT-K5 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 10 Dec 2005 11:29:10 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1El7SL-0000yv-Om for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 10 Dec 2005 11:20:18 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1El7SJ-0000yM-TQ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 10 Dec 2005 11:20:16 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1El7SH-0000xk-Rv for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 10 Dec 2005 11:20:14 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.164] (helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1El7Tg-00078O-GZ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 10 Dec 2005 11:21:40 -0500 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.34) id 1El7R1-0006jD-11; Sat, 10 Dec 2005 11:18:55 -0500 Original-To: Bill Wohler In-reply-to: <21266.1134174346@olgas.newt.com> (message from Bill Wohler on Fri, 09 Dec 2005 16:25:46 -0800) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:47395 gmane.mail.mh-e.devel:11037 Archived-At: The biggest is that the two licenses are incompatible which is a problem because the docstrings in the code are cut and pasted into the manual and vice-versa. That is not a legal problem, since the FSF is the copyright holder for both. However, the use of doc strings in the manual without extensive rewriting would tend to make the manual less than ideal. Doc strings and a manual are rather different, and the text that is good for one is not very good for the other. Another solution was to rewrite the GFDL so that it was compatible with the GPL and acceptable by Debian, but I don't think that has been done either. This idea sounds nice, but it makes no sense. The GFDL can't be made compatible with the GPL except by eliminating it. I hope no one ever said that we would do this. Failing those two solutions, one suggestion that was proposed by Dave Turner was to use a dual-license scheme and license the manual under both the GPL and GFDL. What we want to do is release it solely under the GFDL. That is our policy for licensing GNU manuals. Debian should interpret its criteria in a more sensible way and use it under the GFDL.