Introducing: Semantically reproducible builds

[David A. Wheeler]

> On May 29, 2023, at 4:19 PM, Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant at reproducible-builds.org> wrote:
> 
> On 2023-05-29, Bernhard M. Wiedemann via rb-general wrote:
>> 
>> That 'semi-' prefix should give people a good hint of what it is and if 
>> not, encourage them to ask for details. "sort-of-reproducible" or 
>> "almost-but-not-quite-reproducible" could also be an option :-)
> 
> semi-reproducible still leaves me a bit nervous, but is definitely
> clearer than semantic. :)

To be clear: I didn't create nor implement this approach.
I learned about it, and I wanted to make sure everyone here knew about it because I
though people here would want to know.

I'll file an issue with OSSGadget <https://github.com/microsoft/OSSGadget/>
to propose that they rename "semantically reproducible build" to "semi-reproducible build",
but I can't guarantee that they'll change the name. Since it's their OSS project,
they get to name what they do.

I think it's way* better that they call their approach
"semantically reproducible builds" instead of "reproducible builds" (which is
what they were calling it before I asked them to clarify things with a different term).

Again, if a builder is willing to create fully reproducible builds, that's even better.
But many users can't change what the builders choose to do, so it's better
to have an alternative to "hope nothing goes wrong".

--- David A. Wheeler