Re: "Why is emacs so square?"

[Richard Stallman]

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  > What is the practical meaning of being "part of the program, Emacs" as
  > opposed to "being distinct from the program, Emacs"?  How does one
  > tell whether a given icon is in this or the other category?

It is a legal question.  If a file of code is under the GPL, the
GPL applies to the entire program or work that the file is part of.

But it does not apply to other, separate works that are distributed
WITH that program or work.  Separate in regard to copyright law, I
mean.

I don't know a simple way to describe this, sorry.

  > E.g., we have a lot of icons in etc/images/.  We show these icons on
  > the tool bar and elsewhere when and where appropriate.  Are those
  > icons part of Emacs the program, or aren't they?

I think it depends on how things work to display those images.
And I don't remember that.

When Emacs wants to display etc/images/attach.pbm, how does that work?
Does attach.pbm get somehow linked into Emacs?  Or does Emacs open
etc/images/attach.pbm at run time, read it, and display it?

With the first method, they are part of one combined work.

With the second method, it is valid to say they are two separate works
and treat them as such.

At least, such is the understanding I got from lawyers around 30 years ago.

With two _programs_, the issue is different.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)