Re: Function for quoting Emacs manual sections?

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> From: David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>
>> Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2010 09:33:31 +0100
>> 
>> in the past, when giving people advice about Emacs on Emacs-related
>> mailing lists, I have frequently quoted passages of the Emacs manual (in
>> formatted form).  I have just now bothered to check its license again,
>> and clearly I violated pretty much all provisions of the GFDL while
>> doing so.
>> 
>> Since giving advice in mail or Usenet groups is a frequent occurence,
>> could we have a ready-built function that inserts all relevant copyright
>> notices, lists of invariant sections and other things required by the
>> GFDL around quotes of manual text?
>
> Richard, is it indeed required for short quotations from the manual to
> have all this stuff included?  That sounds excessive.
>
> Maybe I'm missing something, but I see no part in GFDL that speaks
> specifically about such email quotations.

There is lots in the GFDL, but absent of "specific" instructions, of
course the generic instructions hold.  Posting only an excerpt amounts
to

  4. MODIFICATIONS

     You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document
     under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you
     release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with
     the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus
     licensing distribution and modification of the Modified Version to
     whoever possesses a copy of it.  In addition, you must do these
     things in the Modified Version:

       A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title
          distinct from that of the Document, and from those of
          previous versions (which should, if there were any, be listed
          in the History section of the Document).  You may use the
          same title as a previous version if the original publisher of
          that version gives permission.

       B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or
          entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in
          the Modified Version, together with at least five of the
          principal authors of the Document (all of its principal
          authors, if it has fewer than five), unless they release you
          from this requirement.

       C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the
          Modified Version, as the publisher.

       D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.

       E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications
          adjacent to the other copyright notices.

       F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license
          notice giving the public permission to use the Modified
          Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in
          the Addendum below.

       G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant
          Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Document's
          license notice.

       H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.

       I. Preserve the section Entitled "History", Preserve its Title,
          and add to it an item stating at least the title, year, new
          authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on
          the Title Page.  If there is no section Entitled "History" in
          the Document, create one stating the title, year, authors,
          and publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page,
          then add an item describing the Modified Version as stated in
          the previous sentence.

       J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document
          for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and
          likewise the network locations given in the Document for
          previous versions it was based on.  These may be placed in
          the "History" section.  You may omit a network location for a
          work that was published at least four years before the
          Document itself, or if the original publisher of the version
          it refers to gives permission.

       K. For any section Entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications",
          Preserve the Title of the section, and preserve in the
          section all the substance and tone of each of the contributor
          acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.

       L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document,
          unaltered in their text and in their titles.  Section numbers
          or the equivalent are not considered part of the section
          titles.

       M. Delete any section Entitled "Endorsements".  Such a section
          may not be included in the Modified Version.

       N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled
          "Endorsements" or to conflict in title with any Invariant
          Section.

       O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.


There is no provision for using the manual other than under those
conditions.  Short of an automated procedure that will take care of
meeting all those contraints, I don't see how anybody can practically
use the Emacs manual for helping users on public mailing lists.

It is conceivable to do a deep link to an online copy.  However,
navigating in info is _easy_ and _fast_.  Digging through HTML pages
isn't.  So short of an automated procedure that will provide a
corresponding publicly accessible http link when I am positioned inside
of my local Emacs info manual, the consequence will again be that I will
stop using the Emacs or Elisp manual for the purpose of helping other
users: it is just too cumbersome.

-- 
David Kastrup