From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Alfred M. Szmidt" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Release plans Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:37:54 -0400 Message-ID: References: <10697146.3630221218551689983.JavaMail.www@wwinf4615> <20080812171404.GB7999@muc.de> <20080813092057.GA3010@muc.de> <20080814083817.GA2593@muc.de> <877iak7xfp.fsf@skyscraper.fehenstaub.lan> <873al79akr.fsf@skyscraper.fehenstaub.lan> Reply-To: ams@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1218710369 585 80.91.229.12 (14 Aug 2008 10:39:29 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:39:29 +0000 (UTC) Cc: acm@muc.de, rms@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Johannes Weiner Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Aug 14 12:40:20 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1KTaFd-00037F-Nv for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:40:18 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:50001 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KTaEh-0001Tw-9v for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:39:19 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1KTaEZ-0001ST-QR for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:39:11 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1KTaEW-0001Py-LE for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:39:09 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=37673 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KTaEW-0001Pk-6y for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:39:08 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([140.186.70.10]:34652) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1KTaEV-0005O3-Os for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:39:07 -0400 Original-Received: from ams by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.67) (envelope-from ) id 1KTaDK-0005N5-W5; Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:37:55 -0400 In-reply-to: <873al79akr.fsf@skyscraper.fehenstaub.lan> (message from Johannes Weiner on Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:04:36 +0200) X-detected-kernel: by monty-python.gnu.org: Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:102439 Archived-At: > Freedom should never stand over software quality and usability. > > Freedom must always stand over software quality and usability, without > it we cannot improve the software in question. Not when your definition of freedom forbids certain improvements. Free software does not forbid any kinds of improvment. It explicitly protects that right. Emacs has still no support to load shared libraries during runtime and IIRC it was rejected back then due to political reasons. I call this crippling. If a feature allows someone to subjugate the rights of a computer user, then it is better not to implement it. The Emacs maintainers decided that this feature would do a greater disservice to users than having it included, so they decided not to. It is no different to rejecting a feature because it does something annoying, you may call it crippling, but it is just good managment of a project.