Re: GTK file selector

["Jérôme Marant" <jmarant@free.fr>]

David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:


>> I think it could be fixed by making bugfix releases as I already
>> proposed many times (I also proposed to add myself as manpower for
>> such a purpose).  So far, supporting the current released version is
>> not wanted, as far as I understood.
>
> We have already too little manpower to support the coming release.

Really? There are more than one hundred committers, according to
the Emacs page at Savannah.

Isn't it only a broadening the scope of features for the next release?

>> Also, I wonder if the modular design -- separating core and modules
>> -- makes it easier to release often.
>
> One has to be aware that in the case of XEmacs, this is snake oil.
> XEmacs' code base, while frequently released, has not yet even caught
> up to Emacs-21.0 in core areas.  The packages, while frequently
> released, are often in a state of disarray and various levels of
> outdatedness.  XEmacs-21.5 is quite unstable.  And so on.  There is
> the occasional package that is kept more up to date in that manner,
> but the overall effect is not consistently convincing to me.

I'm not promoting anything but IMHO XEmacs did it right from the
very beginning by focusing on what users expect the most from, that
is user interface: toolbar (movable on the left and on the right
as well), buffer tabs, horizontal scrollbars, a gutter, rich
menu entries from where most UI options can be configured (I'm
not talking about "customize"), a package system.
I'd even say that there are enough features for most end users.
The only necessary improvement I can see is related to Unicode
support (which Emacs is doing quite right).

Catching-up with Emacs is only necessary because Emacs APIs do change,
are enriched, and mode authors who mostly use Emacs update their
software accordly.

-- 
Jérôme Marant