Re: Fwd: How do I go about debugging my Elisp code?

[Tassilo Horn]

Jean Louis <bugs@gnu.support> writes:

>> I don't think that an emacs package is a modification of emacs itself
>> or a derivative work.
>
> If you modify variable you are modifying Emacs.

So if I want to give some help-searching user the hint to reproduce an
error with debug-on-error set to t, I should write my reply as given in
the below?

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
Could you please try using the following added to your .emacs?

;; This file is part of GNU Emacs.

;; GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
;; it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
;; the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
;; (at your option) any later version.

;; GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
;; but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
;; MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
;; GNU General Public License for more details.

;; You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
;; along with GNU Emacs.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
(setq debug-on-error t)
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

I mean, according to your reasoning, I'm publishing a modification of
emacs here.

> If you create a function than such software modifies Emacs as function
> did not exist in Emacs.  It creates new function.  Thus new function
> is modification of Emacs itself.

IMHO, modification is usually meant as copying and adapting code.
Setting a variable is more or less configuration.  An interesting aspect
are advices which allow modifying existing functions without physically
touching their source code.

>> But I'm not sure if merely posting some basically private code
>> somewhere on a private homepage or on some pastebin requires you to
>> add a license notice.
>
> It does, otherwise it is considered incompatible to Emacs as it is
> automatically proprietary.

Well, I'd say that's kind of a grey area.  Of course, elisp code that is
published on the interwebs without specifying a compatible license
cannot be subject for inclusion or linkage in my super-duper elisp
package which I intend to publish on some package archive.  However, I
wouldn't go so far to accuse someone posting his ~/.emacs or some other
code snippets of license infringement.

Bye,
Tassilo