On Jan 19, 2009, at 1:45 AM, Nick Roberts wrote:

>>> It might be acheivable but I doubt GNU would agree to a student from
>>> their allocated number working on a port of Emacs to a proprietary
>>> platform.
>>
>> Eliminating bugs from Emacs is *always* a good thing, even for
>> proprietary platforms. I think discouraging people from trying to
>> improve Emacs based upon the platform they use sends the wrong  
>> message.
>
> I think some perspective is needed here: last year GNU, as an  
> organisation, was
> allocated 9 students which meant under one student per project from  
> those that
> had applied.  Unless GNUstep is a get out of jail clause, I think  
> giving people
> false hope sends out the wrong message.  Of course, all these ideas  
> are to be
> encouraged and should get the support of the mailing list, but  
> probably only
> one, at most, will receive a grant.

At the same time, GNU is allotted "slots" based upon the number of  
interested parties, among other things, so I think encouraging work on  
all platforms (due note that an emphasis on open platforms is more  
than acceptable) would result in more interest among applicants overall.