On Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 09:31:08AM +1000, Andrew Pam wrote:
On 22/07/13 03:15, Adam Bolte wrote:
I wouldn't define music or video as software either, for the same reasons - even though these are commonly distributed on CD or DVD.
People do define music and video as "software", though:
"Software means /computer instructions or data/. Anything that can be stored electronically is software, in contrast to storage devices and display devices which are called hardware." http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/software.html
"soft.ware noun 2.anything that is not hardware but is used with hardware, especially audiovisual materials, as film, tapes, records, etc.: a studio fully equipped but lacking software. 3.Television Slang. prepackaged materials, as movies or reruns, used to fill out the major part of a station's program schedule." http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/software?s=t
"software n 2. (Electronics) video cassettes and discs for use with a particular video system (Collins English Dictionary) software n 2. any material requiring the use of mechanical or electrical equipment, esp. audiovisual material such as film, tapes, or records. (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary)" http://www.thefreedictionary.com/software
"Definition of SOFTWARE b: materials for use with audiovisual equipment" http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/software
The most trustworthy source of the above links would appear to be Webster, but that's also easily the most vague. Let's have a look at the dictionaries actually distributed by the Debian project as packages: From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: software n 1: (computer science) written programs or procedures or rules and associated documentation pertaining to the operation of a computer system and that are stored in read/write memory; "the market for software is expected to expand" [syn: {software}, {software program}, {computer software}, {software system}, {software package}, {package}] [ant: {computer hardware}, {hardware}] From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (18 May 2012) [foldoc]: software computer program program ... Software includes both {source code} written by humans and executable {machine code} produced by {assemblers} or {compilers}. It does not usually include the data processed by programs unless this is in a format such as {multimedia} which depends on the use of computers for its presentation. This distinction becomes unclear in cases such as {spread sheets} which can contain both instructions (formulae and {macros}) and data. There are also various intermediate compiled or {semi-compiled}, forms of software such as {library} files and {byte-code}. Some claim that {documentation} (both paper and electronic) is also software. Others go further and define software to be programs plus documentation though this does not correspond with common usage.
Fonts are definitely not a software program, although some software and document files such as PDFs may optionally include them.
That depends on the format. Some fonts are instructions to a font renderer, and therefore definitely are a software program in a defined font language.
I'm not familiar enough with font renderers, so if true then you make a fair point.