mailing-list for TeXmacs Users

[Maxime Devos <address@hidden>]

Op 13-04-2023 om 16:54 schreef Massimiliano Gubinelli:
> Well, the manual is free because Joris wrote it and choose to make it free, 
> while Jolly Writer is now accessible via PDF

I thought it was a paid book, but apparently a PDF exists _and is 
zero-cost_ (I thought you were referring to some e-book to pay for first 
...): <https://www.scypress.com/The-Jolly-Writer.pdf>

> So I do not see why you see a problem with one but not the other.

The "Jolly Writer" is not part of TeXmacs -- TeXmacs is GNU software, 
GNU requires free (*) documentation, the "Jolly Writer" isn't free, ergo 
the "Jolly Writer" can't be part of TeXmacs (under the assumption that 
GNU requirements are followed).

Then, given a choice between an external non-free manual (the Jolly 
Writer) and the built-in manual, the builtin-manual seems a more 
reasonable choice to me, especially if the external is not freely 
accessible (^).

(*) as in, free, not zero cost
(^) which has just been disproved, but I didn't know it back then.

> Writing all this documentation for TeXmacs required anyway a lot of time.

If writing documentation takes lots of time, then surely writing 
documentation _twice_ takes longer.  Looking at the Jolly Writer, it 
appears to cover many parts of TeXmacs, so it appears to me that the 
user manual of TeXmacs could just be "The Jolly Writer, + a bunch of 
additional chapters".

(This would not prevent selling copies -- the license of the user manual 
(GFDL IIRC) allows selling copies.)

Given that this doesn't appear to have been done, it seems an illogical 
situation to me, so I'll stick with the builtin manual instead of the 
sort-of-but-not-really-external ‘Why isn't this just part of the user 
manual??? What's oging on???’ book.

Given that it appears that the writing of this additional manual is 
time-wasting (there is already another manual!!), I think I _shouldn't_ 
buy "The Jolly Writer" to _not_ encourage such time wasting.  (Someone 
may waste some time if they want to, but not with my money.)

Greetings,
MaximE.

Attachment: OpenPGP_0x49E3EE22191725EE.asc
Description: OpenPGP public key

Attachment: OpenPGP_signature
Description: OpenPGP digital signature