Re: New maintainer

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

John Wiegley <johnw@newartisans.com> writes:

>>>>>> Mathieu Lirzin <mthl@openmailbox.org> writes:
>
>> What about Ethical skills? I would argue that technical skills are not
>> sufficient especially for maintaining a major GNU package like Emacs. Using
>> MacOSX & iOS as main operating systems and Hangout/Skype for communications,
>> seems incompatible with the role to me.
>
> I also disagree with the spirit of the GPL, vocally in fact. If the
> requisite for maintaining Emacs is that one use (GNU/)Linux and
> espouse the philosophies of RMS, that is not me.
>
> However: are you looking for someone to act as an arm of the FSF, or
> do you want the best possible Emacs?

Well, the GPL is what makes sure that I actually have the right to get
the best possible Emacs once it is distributed anywhere.  A lot of "best
possible Emacsen" lie by the wayside, starting with Gosling Emacs and
arguably ending with XEmacs.

Now Stephen Turnbull, the current XEmacs maintainer for longer than any
of his Emacsen colleagues with the possible exception of RMS, is not
making a point of "disagreeing with the spirit of the GPL" at all even
though it's sort of foisted onto XEmacs.  It's more like they are
driving XEmacs under different work parameters than Emacs is driven,
with different conclusions from the same set of principles.

I don't think that "vocally disagreeing with the spirit of the GPL"
would provide a maintainership retaining whatever it was that has
enabled Emacs to claw back its way to the front time and again.  There
have been a number of heated discussions between RMS and various
maintainers, but they did not concern the "spirit of the GPL" as much as
they did the best choices to make in order to get the most from it.

I wouldn't go as far as calling this "ethical skills" but yes, it seems
like a cultural mismatch that would appear likely to cause considerable
friction in choosing consistent priorities for ongoing development.

-- 
David Kastrup