On Thu, Jul 15, 2004 at 04:32:58PM -0700, Martin Quinson wrote: > #244276 is a RC bug against a litteral program (tex4ht). The question is to > know whether distributing a preprocessed source file is a source code > obfuscation, and thus a obstruction to the source code modification or > whatever. In other word, does the DFSG allows such thing?
The most common definition I've seen for "source" is the GPL's: "preferred form for modification". (This isn't necessarily the one Debian must use, but it's the most sane and real-world one I know of, and probably by far the most well-accepted and well-tested one.) At least by that definition, and from a reading of the bug log, this preprocessed code is not source; it is not what the upstream author prefers to use to modify the work. (I don't know anything about literate programming; I'm merely going from the bug log.) > See for instance, > http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2001/11/msg00009.html This is a message about the GFDL, not literate programming; lacking any knowledge of literate programming, I can't tell how it relates. -- Glenn Maynard
