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+@c -*-texinfo-*-
+@c This is part of the GNU Guile Reference Manual.
+@c Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2010, 2011, 2018
+@c Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+@c See the file guile.texi for copying conditions.
+
+@node Preface
+@unnumbered Preface
+
+This manual describes how to use Guile, GNU's Ubiquitous Intelligent
+Language for Extensions. It relates particularly to Guile version
+@value{VERSION}.
+
+@menu
+* Contributors::
+* Guile License::
+@end menu
+
+@node Contributors
+@unnumberedsec Contributors to this Manual
+
+Like Guile itself, the Guile reference manual is a living entity, cared
+for by many people over a long period of time. As such, it is hard to
+identify individuals of whom to say ``yes, this person, she wrote the
+manual.''
+
+Still, among the many contributions, some caretakers stand out. First
+among them is Neil Jerram, who has worked on this document for over ten
+years. Neil's attention both to detail and to the big picture have made
+a real difference in the understanding of a generation of Guile hackers.
+
+Next we should note Marius Vollmer's effect on this document. Marius
+maintained Guile during a period in which Guile's API was
+clarified---put to the fire, so to speak---and he had the good sense to
+effect the same change on the manual.
+
+Martin Grabmueller made substantial contributions throughout the manual
+in preparation for the Guile 1.6 release, including filling out a lot of
+the documentation of Scheme data types, control mechanisms and
+procedures. In addition, he wrote the documentation for Guile's SRFI
+modules and modules associated with the Guile REPL.
+
+Ludovic Court@`es and Andy Wingo, who co-maintain Guile since 2010,
+along with Mark Weaver, have also made their dent in the manual, writing
+documentation for new modules and subsystems that arrived with Guile
+2.0. Ludovic, Andy, and Mark are also responsible for ensuring that the
+existing text retains its relevance as Guile evolves. @xref{Reporting
+Bugs}, for more information on reporting problems in this manual.
+
+The content for the first versions of this manual incorporated and was
+inspired by documents from Aubrey Jaffer, author of the SCM system on
+which Guile was based, and from Tom Lord, Guile's first maintainer.
+Although most of this text has been rewritten, all of it was important,
+and some of the structure remains.
+
+The manual for the first versions of Guile were largely written, edited,
+and compiled by Mark Galassi and Jim Blandy. In particular, Jim wrote
+the original tutorial on Guile's data representation and the C API for
+accessing Guile objects.
+
+Significant portions were also contributed by Thien-Thi Nguyen, Kevin
+Ryde, Mikael Djurfeldt, Christian Lynbech, Julian Graham, Gary Houston,
+Tim Pierce, and a few dozen more. You, reader, are most welcome to join
+their esteemed ranks. Visit Guile's web site at
+@uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/} to find out how to get
+involved.
+
+
+@node Guile License
+@unnumberedsec The Guile License
+@cindex copying
+@cindex GPL
+@cindex LGPL
+@cindex license
+
+Guile is Free Software. Guile is copyrighted, not public domain, and
+there are restrictions on its distribution or redistribution, but
+these restrictions are designed to permit everything a cooperating
+person would want to do.
+
+@itemize @bullet
+@item
+The Guile library (libguile) and supporting files are published under
+the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License version 3 or later.
+See the files @file{COPYING.LESSER} and @file{COPYING}.
+
+@item
+The Guile readline module is published under the terms of the GNU
+General Public License version 3 or later. See the file @file{COPYING}.
+
+@item
+The manual you're now reading is published under the terms of the GNU
+Free Documentation License (@pxref{GNU Free Documentation License}).
+@end itemize
+
+C code linking to the Guile library is subject to terms of that
+library. Basically such code may be published on any terms, provided
+users can re-link against a new or modified version of Guile.
+
+C code linking to the Guile readline module is subject to the terms of
+that module. Basically such code must be published on Free terms.
+
+Scheme level code written to be run by Guile (but not derived from
+Guile itself) is not restricted in any way, and may be published on any
+terms. We encourage authors to publish on Free terms.
+
+You must be aware there is no warranty whatsoever for Guile. This is
+described in full in the licenses.
+
+
+@c Local Variables:
+@c TeX-master: "guile.texi"
+@c End: