Re: gdb.mi/*.exp and absolute line numbers

[Michael Chastain <mec.gnu@mindspring.com>]

"Eli Zaretskii" <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
eliz> Do we have to put the copyright text at the beginning of a file?  If
eliz> not, you could add it to the end, which will keep the line info
eliz> intact.

We could do that.

The gnu maintainer's guide says:

  http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain_8.html

  4.4 Copyright Notices
  
  ... Some formats do not have room for textual annotations;
  for these files, state the copyright and copying permissions in
  a README file in the same directory.

  Change log files should have a copyright notice and license notice
  at the end, since new material is added at the beginning but the end
  remains the end.

(Ouch, I need to write a copyright notice for testsuite/ChangeLog.)

My understanding of U.S. copyright law is that the copyright notice has
to be in a prominent place, so that when a reasonable person starts
reading the work, they will have reasonable notice of the copyright.
That way, when a copyright holder takes a copyright infringer to court,
and the copyright infringer says "I didn't see the copyright notice" and
tries to make a case for innocent infringement, the copyright holder can
say "It was right there in your face where any normal person would see
it!", and make a case for willful infringement.

Willful infringement means more damages, which means more negotiating
power for the copyright holder in out-of-court negotiations.

eliz> But I see you already decided on the first approach.

Yeah.  The copyright question is incidental.  It came up because I want
to make other changes to these files, and I don't like to modify a file
that needs a copyright notice and doesn't have one.

(Double ouch on testsuite/ChangeLog).

The real issue is that some of these testsuite/*.c files cannot be
edited for any reason, or they break.  Imagine if the gdb doco was
kept in gdb.info format, not gdb.texinfo, and every time you added
something, you had to hand-adjust the Tag Table at the end or it
would break.  Hence my push to make gdb_get_line_number usable in
gdb.mi, and then use it in gdb.mi.

Michael C