Summary

Scriptorium/Archives/2023-04

Legislation Versions as Synthesis of Works Not sure if this should have been posted on the Versions talk page, but since that's been inactive since 2013, thought I'd post it here.
I do understand that we don't do syntheses of works for a reason, but I also can't think of any other situation in which it would be as useful as with legislation.
Each version of an Act is quite literally a synthesis of works. It is the act as enacted, but with some paragraphs removed/replaced/added based on other works, the amendment acts.
Source: Wikisource

Scriptorium/Archives/2023-04

Versions of legislation are "officially published" syntheses of works. They take the act as enacted, they adjust based on amendment acts, and then they publish that as a reprint. The reprint has no new information, it's just the original, with edits taken verbatim from the amendment act. If the official one is a synthesis, then why can't ours be so long as it perfectly matches? If I want to put 50 versions of one act here, being allowed to make 49 of them a synthesis of works would simplify that process significantly.
Source: Wikisource

Scriptorium/Archives/2023-04

Then they publish "The Example Act 2023 (Version 2) ", which itself is a synthesis of The Example Act 2022 and The Example Act Amendment Act 2023.
It doesn't make much sense for us to duplicate all that text with a slight adjustment in version 2. That leaves room for mistakes, it creates way more work, and isn't a very efficient use of our time. It also means you have to have confidence in the transcribing of two documents. Confidence that one hasn't been incorrectly edited. And if you're correcting one version that has a mistake that's been in all versions, you have to go correct them all.
Source: Wikisource

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