Re: argp: Correct documentation

[Bruno Haible]

Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
> Does a system become a `glibc platform' if one uses gnulib?

No, it doesn't, because
  - the term 'platform' or 'system' denotes the basic OS + base libraries,
  - Gnulib does not emcompass glibc.

> Seeing
> that all or most of the things glibc provides, so does gnulib.

Gnulib is far away from providing all that glibc provides. See
https://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/manual/html_node/Glibc-Header-File-Substitutes.html
and
https://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/manual/html_node/Glibc-Function-Substitutes.html

>      * RMS decided that the NetBSD kernel, plus the NetBSD libc, plus GNU
>        userland is a GNU system and to be called "GNU/NetBSD". [1]
>        Whereas the NetBSD kernel, plus glibc, plus GNU userland is to be
>        called "GNU/kNetBSD". [2]
> 
> I could not find this decision in those two references, both are pages
> from Debian, and nothing from RMS on the topic.

You can trust my memory on this statement, even though I can't find the precise
mail where RMS announced this decision. It was probably in 2001.

>      - Is Alpine Linux a GNU system? (It uses musl libc instead of glibc.) [4]
> 
> No, Alpine is not based on the GNU system ...
> 
>      - Is Windows with WSL and a GNU distro a GNU system? [5][6]
> 
> Windows is the operating system here, that is what your computer is
> running.  Just becaues you run another operating system inside an
> existing one, doesn't mean that one becomes the other.  

While you can answer these questions (and I agree with the answers), the mere
fact that these questions appear on reddit shows that the term "GNU system"
is not as unambiguous as one might wish.

Bruno