From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Emacs contributions, C and Lisp Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2014 16:31:30 -0500 Message-ID: References: <53064BD0.7070009@yandex.ru> <87ha7tr5bo.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> <87ppmhecd8.fsf@yandex.ru> <87y50z90pd.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> <87txbn8r6x.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> <8338j717oe.fsf@gnu.org> <87zjlf6tdx.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> <83sir7yue7.fsf@gnu.org> <8761o3dlak.fsf@wanadoo.es> <83bnxuzyl4.fsf@gnu.org> <871tyqes5q.fsf@wanadoo.es> <87a9ddg7o8.fsf@engster.org> <87d2i9ee8t.fsf@engster.org> <874n3ke1qn.fsf@engster.org> <87sir336qn.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1393709489 29078 80.91.229.3 (1 Mar 2014 21:31:29 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2014 21:31:29 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: David Kastrup Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Mar 01 22:31:36 2014 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1WJrVP-0000fk-G3 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 01 Mar 2014 22:31:35 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:60919 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1WJrVO-0007Fy-Rb for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 01 Mar 2014 16:31:34 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:46160) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1WJrVM-0007Ft-EF for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 01 Mar 2014 16:31:33 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1WJrVL-0007kd-9k for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 01 Mar 2014 16:31:32 -0500 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:43185) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1WJrVL-0007kX-6w for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 01 Mar 2014 16:31:31 -0500 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1WJrVK-0001yw-Nv; Sat, 01 Mar 2014 16:31:30 -0500 In-reply-to: <87sir336qn.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> (message from David Kastrup on Fri, 28 Feb 2014 10:51:28 +0100) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Error: Malformed IPv6 address (bad octet value). X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:170029 Archived-At: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] Now the case of Windows is obviously different (as Windows is proprietary and is more of a platform rather than a tool), but I would guess that it would be reasonable to apply the same logic here. Windows is proprietary software -- evil and unjust. LLVM is free software, so it is not in itself evil or unjust. However, noncopylefted LLVM's entry into a field dominated by copylefted GCC has the effect of opening the door to injustice. Morally, the two are not equivalent. What the developers of Windows are doing is flat-out wrong, and would be wrong under any circumstances. What the developers of LLVM are doing is foolish given that we already had GCC: it invites others to do wrong, in ways which were difficult to do with GCC. The difference is comparable to the difference between strewing radioactive material on a city and building a skyscraper there with a nuclear power plant on top. The latter is not an attack, but it is a very bad thing to do. Thus, strategically, there is not much difference between launching LLVM into a world with only GCC and launching Windows into a world with only GNU/Linux. In practice, however, there's another difference: Windows today is not new; on the contrary, it is far more widely used than GNU/Linux. In fact, our policy towards the two is pretty similar. It is ok to make Emacs run on Windows, but we don't accept any Emacs features that depend on Windows. Our policy is, "it runs best on GNU". There shouldn't be any features in Emacs that give an advantage to some other system over the GNU system. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St Boston MA 02110 USA www.fsf.org www.gnu.org Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software. Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call.