[ntroup]

I think a lot of this discussion comes down to what the rule actually says. I see a lot of people saying 'I think'/'I infer'/'I believe' regarding this rule, but no one has said 'I know' what the rule exactly means.

What is FIRST's intent when they say "software algorithms and designs may be reused." Does that mean the high level design, or the actual functional implementation. The rule does not exactly say, and it is left to the readers' interpretation.

I would have to believe that most people (and I hope that this is true) are trying to follow the rules, but to their own interpretation of them. In most cases, this would seem like 'bending the rules' to make them more favorable for you. However, in this case, with the software side of FIRST becoming so big, yet still so new, I believe(*) that the rules don't quite state what is/isn't allowed exactly to the level that all will understand. (* Again, my own interpretation)

Each person obviously has their own thoughts on this issue, but those thoughts aren't necessarily FIRST's. I think the appropriate thing to do is to ask FIRST directly, when the rules for 2007 come out, and see how they address this exact issue.

After doing a quick scan of 2006's Q&A system, I did not see anyone post a question regarding this. But, there are a lot of questions regarding Software and how it fits into the rulebooks (i.e. FixIt windows, shipping, practice bots, etc). This shows that there is a large misunderstanding of how we are to deal with this, since it is different than a hardware component.

So, in order to prevent any larger argument, I think we need to agree to disagree until we can get a decisive answer from the powers that be.

-Nate