Re: Emacs contributions, C and Lisp

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@IRO.UMontreal.CA> writes:

>> plugin unusable. Also, I seem to be unable to discuss with Richard
>> without him calling out my behavior,
>
> Nobody seems to be able to do that on this subject.  It seems to be an
> emotional subject for Richard.

Entering a discussion with one's conclusion and an immediate call for
action is not all that much of a discussion.  It does not become one by
five people doing the same.  Any action is for Richard to decide, to
justify, and to deal with the consequences.

Now it's obvious that he was not prepared for the perceived urgency of
his action, and neither were others.

>> so I'm clearly not the right person for this job.
>
> No, I think it's got nothing to do with you,

The main problem here was bad timing I think.  A lot of work had already
been invested before Richard got an idea that there was something to
think about.

This can easily happen without somebody consciously planning to pass
something under Richard's radar since most people are happy to leave the
policing to Richard and to not bother themselves with it.  But then it
can happen that he notices something requiring a strategy at a point of
time where this is rather inconvenient.

It's not that the respective work is lost: since we are talking about
free software, the main effect of the decision is whether such projects
make it into the core distribution of Emacs and/or GCC, or whether there
will need to be separate distribution channels outside of the FSF's
control.

I don't think it will end there, but obviously that's Richard's choice
to make.  And I would be rather unhappy if Richard's obvious need for
thinking time and breathing room to come to a decision about a
consistent and tenable strategy in that regard would cause people to
abandon work they'd otherwise would have been happy to do.

-- 
David Kastrup