GFDL/GPL issues

[Jeff Law]

  On 07/29/10 08:26, Richard Kenner wrote:
>> But even for documentation written by hand, often I find that I'd like to
>> start out with some comment or example from the actual code.  The GPL / GFDL
>> dichotomy doesn't allow me to do that, so some documentation just won't get
>> written.
> Taking an example from actual code would be "fair use" and not a violation
> of the GPL.  I don't see a problem there.  Taking large pieces of code
> in a mechanical way is completely different from the type of manual
> copying you're talking about.
Isn't one of the specific instances of this issue the desire to copy 
some of the constraints information from the source, which would need to 
go into the user manual rather than internals documentation?

And in some cases a function index with documentation may be precisely 
what the end-user needs -- think runtime libraries.


What's concerning is how much time we've got to spend discussing this 
kind of issue rather than getting real work done, all due to a license 
that is insanely controversial.

Jeff