Savannah rejects a project because it uses GPL

[simo]

On Sun, 2006-02-12 at 01:16 +0000, MJ Ray wrote:
> simo <simo.sorce at xsec.it>
> > Everything can be converted into a set of instructions, does this mean
> > that everything is a program ?
> 
> No. "can be" suggests a possibility. "is" would indicate a certainty.
> Arguing against the certainty does not argue against the possibility.
> I do not claim that documentation is software, but that documentation
> can be software.

Well I do not understand how that can happen, probably because I have a
stricter idea of what software is.

> Everything can be put into words, does this mean everything is an essay?

Sorry I do not actually see the analogy.

> (Actually, I'm not sure about any of those "everything" claims.)
> 
> > [...] If you run the postscript program and print the result on paper,
> > is that not the document anymore? Of course it is, and printed paper is
> > not a program.
> 
> Listings magazines and machine-readable strips seemed popular types
> of printed paper programs in my youth. Printed paper is not necessarily
> a program, but printed paper can be a program. I hope this is clear.

I'm sorry, it is not clear to me. I can't see how printed paper can be a
program, unless you mean that printed paper is the media from which the
computer reads the instructions, but I think it is so a corner case I
tend to exclude it. You may have a program written on paper, but I do
not think a book (a human readable book, and by human I mean any human
that can read not just programmers) can be ever a program (with program
being a set of strict instructions run by a computer).

Simo.