Chewtobacca said:

ABC said:

What is the difference between a "change" and an "alteration" ?

There is none in common parlance. To change is to alter. You can describe different kinds of change if you want to do so, but to use one of a pair of synonyms to refer to one kind of change, and the other to refer to another kind of change, would be a purely arbitrary distinction.

Oh. Sorry. In French, "change" means a change or a re-evaluation, when an "alteration" means a degradation.

When you're an author who allows himself to some changes in your own work, they can be a degradation or an improvement. The second one can't be called an alteration in French.

Anchorhead said:

... Which gets us into a different area of alteration\change discussion - people altering other people's work...

Of course.

... And I like the dessert exemple ;)