Re: New maintainer

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

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  > Any solution we choose should never preclude the opportunity for GCC to
  > outshine other choices.

That's true, but it is too weak; we are failing to communicate.  The
issue is not about what is "precluded" but rather about what actually
works.  The point is, when the feature is introduced in Emacs, it
should really work with GCC as well as it does with any competitor to
GCC.

What I want to avoid is that Emacs starts encouraging people to switch
from GCC to some competitor.

This issue is not about free vs proprietary software.  I am not saying
that competitors to a GNU package are unjust or bad -- that isn't
necessarily so.  The pertinent point is that they are _competitors_.
The goal if the GNU Project is for GNU to win the competition.  Each
GNU package is a part of the GNU system, and should contribute to the
success of the GNU Project.

Thus, each GNU package should encourage people to run other GNU
packages rather than their competitors -- even competitors which are
free software.

This is a practical question.  It's about practical effect, not some
legalistic criterion.

Thus, it wouldn't be good enough if there is a GCC patch we don't
endorse, that makes it do the job in question -- because, practically
speaking, that wouldn't change the effect much.  The support should be
in the real GCC sources.

On the other hand, it would be good enough for that to be in the
development GCC repository in the master or root.  We don't need to
wait for it to be officially released.


-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation (gnu.org, fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (internethalloffame.org)
Skype: No way! See stallman.org/skype.html.