Alexander Terekhov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on Thu, 09 Feb 2006 17:24:54 +0100:
> Alan Mackenzie wrote: >> For example, just last week I needed a function which searches >> backwards a maximum of 3000 bytes from the end of file for "Local >> Variables:", and then deletes any following lines containing "mode:" >> or "eval:". I extracted the code which did the searching out of an >> existing function, then added the bits to do the deletion. > fancy_file("Alan Mackenzie") > .locate_backwards_from_end("Local Variables:", 3000) > .delete_any_following_lines_containing("mode:", "eval:"); The actual source of the function I'm talking about (which is available in SourceForge) is materially different from the above. The extracted code (what you've called ".locate_backwards_from_end") has been extensively changed from the original, yet is recognisably derived from it. > You grabbed some code for locate_backwards_from_end() and changed it. Yes. > I authored delete_any_following_lines(). No. There is no contribution from you in the function I am talking about. You are trying to hypothesise about a different scenario. >> The resulting function is in no way a "compilation" - it is a >> derivative of the original function. > The resulting overall program is a compilation of your work and my > work. Your work (function locate_backwards_from_end() that contains > someone else's *modified* code) may well be a derivative work. That > doesn't change the status of the resulting overall program -- it's > still a compilation. No. The function was written by me, a substantial part of it having been derived from an existing function written by somebody else. The function I wrote is derived from the original. It is not a "compilation" of my work with somebody else's, since the constituent parts don't retain their separate identity. Think of an embryo - it is not a "compilation" of an egg and a sperm, since the latter have long since lost their distinctive identity. The embryo is _derived_ from the egg and sperm, though. > Got it now? No. It doesn't seem like you have either. By the way, is your native language English? > alexander. -- Alan Mackenzie (Munich, Germany) Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; to decode, wherever there is a repeated letter (like "aa"), remove half of them (leaving, say, "a"). _______________________________________________ Gnu-misc-discuss mailing list Gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss