Invariant sections to disappear from the FDL?
The more I think about them, the more I think that removable Invariant Sections--sections that are unrelated to content and that cannot be changed--are a good idea. The GNU Manifesto is one example; advertisements is another. Advertisements could be a great way for one publisher to finance a printed edition or even a web site edition. But downstream publishers should not be required to include those advertisements, nor should the presence of those advertisements lock off a discussion of the topic those advertisements cover.
It looks like the FSF is going to come out with a new version of the FDL soon; Eben Moglen didn’t specifically mention invariant sections, but I have hopes that this is one of the “issues” that will be addressed.
If the new version does successfully address this issue, I’ll likely be changing all of my tutorials over to the new version.
I talk about this more on the Biblyon Broadsheet, since Gods & Monsters also use the Free Documentation License.
- New Version of GFDL Announced
- A new version of the Free Software Foundation’s Free Documentation License may solve issues such as invariant section lock-out. If so, future versions of Gods & Monsters will use the new version.
- The Biblyon Broadsheet
- Like adventurers of old you will delve into forgotten tombs where creatures of myth stalk the darkness. You will search uncharted wilderness for lost knowledge and hidden treasure. Where the hand-scrawled sign warns “beyond here lie dragons,” your stories begin.
More tutorials
- Django tutorial mostly ready
- My long-promised Django tutorial is pretty much ready. It’s still designed around an in-person tutorial, but you should be able to get started using it even if you’re on your own.
- JavaScript for Beginners revised
- I’ve completely revised my JavaScript for Beginners tutorials to be more in tune with modern JavaScript, and to provide more useful examples in general.
- Perls before Swine Perl tutorial
- I’ve completely revamped my Perl tutorial, and explicitly released it under the Gnu FDL. This tutorial starts from a simple filter that does nothing but echo to the terminal window, and ends with the ability to split data according to fields and import data into a SQLite database.
- Persistence of Vision tutorial
- A step-by-step tutorial, available under the Gnu Free Documentation License, on using the Persistence of Vision raytracer.
- JavaScript for Beginners update
- The JavaScript tutorial has been updated by introducing loops earlier, and in the first section.
- Two more pages with the topic tutorials, and other related pages