Re: GTK file selector

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Nick Roberts <nickrob@snap.net.nz> writes:

>  >   ...You may have noticed the presence of a prominent former
>  > XEmacs developer (Hrvoje Niksic) recently on this list.  Although
>  > he made it clear that he didn't have time to work around the
>  > specific problems he has with XEmacs, and so has turned to the
>  > mainline again, he also expressed his dismay that even with his
>  > customized Emacs environment, there are still many features
>  > missing that come with (say) Eclipse out of the box.
>
> Exactly.  ISTR that Hrvoje contributed to Emacs development, even
> though he may not share the whole vision.  If Aidan chooses to do
> the same, I am sure that will be welcome too.

I don't think there is any question about that.  A significant part of
the original Emacs/XEmacs animosoties arose exactly because of an
expressed preference for developer mindshare over actual code from
XEmacs.

But while I certainly am glad for people joining Emacs development,
even those that do just with a focus on coordinating compatibility, I
find it troublesome that the alternatives for them seemingly have lost
attraction.  I don't think that ideology is involved in the decisions
for the bulk of developers and users, and so the question remains what
has changed in the last 10 years to make an independent free software
project with considerable developer base appear to slump in that
manner.

Maybe it is because Emacsen as a whole have dropped out of corporate
attention, and this impacted XEmacs' position more than that of Emacs.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum