The quote in https://social.heldscal.la/notice/2614871 highlights the difference between common law and civil law. In common law, the letter is the law. In civil law, most notably in Swedish law, the letter of the law is the foremost part of the law, but the discussion preceding the law is officially considered part of the code too, and is published along with the final text. The law text becomes a detailed executive summary.

In the discussion of "my source code should be able to stand on its own, and I really shouldn't need to keep all this history around", is your source code US code or Swedish code?

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