Re: How to cite the Emacs and Calc manuals?

[Emanuel Berg]

Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> writes:

> - what is the author? It says on the first page:
> "This manual, also written (mostly) by Dave
> Gillespie [...]" - so is it "Dave Gillespie" or
> "Dave Gillespie et al." or what? - what is the year
> of publication? It says on the first page:
> "Copyright (C) 1990-1991, 2001-2013 Free Software
> Foundation, Inc." - so is it 2013? - what is the
> publisher? I guess FSF, but they don't have it in
> their dead trees web page shop. - not to mention the
> place of publishing (usually it's the name of a
> city).

Look for an ISBN, the rest isn't a life-or-death
issue. Google the ISBN if you want to see what other
people wrote (how they filled in the blank).

> So for me, it is not at all clear.

Except for the ISBN, often it is not entirely
consistent. Because of the ISBN, I don't see that as a
problem, really.

>> By the way, I think it was gnuplot: the first time
>> you use it it outputs an entry just like that how
>> to cite it in a paper! While I think that is a bit
>> silly, software COULD come with an option, e.g.
>> --cite so you could output it that way (and/or it
>> could be mentioned in the man page). Why not? It is
>> easy to do and some people would actually use it as
>> well.
>
> +1. At least the manuals (especially huge,
> well-written manuals like the Calc's one) could
> contain information like that.

The reason they did it for gnuplot is that it is very
common for people to include such figures in papers
and books. The Emacs influence to world literature is
of course not as immediately obvious, but no doubt
huge by comparison. It is the dark druids alright.
They act but aren't seen...

-- 
underground experts united