From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Adding advisory notification for non-ELPA package.el downloads Date: Sat, 08 Jul 2017 13:03:44 -0400 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Utf-8 X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1499533635 15038 195.159.176.226 (8 Jul 2017 17:07:15 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 8 Jul 2017 17:07:15 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Dmitry Gutov Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Jul 08 19:07:11 2017 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1dTtCF-0003XW-4H for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 08 Jul 2017 19:07:07 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:33553 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dTtCK-0005Tt-Le for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 08 Jul 2017 13:07:12 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:33112) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dTt9O-00043b-T5 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 08 Jul 2017 13:04:11 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dTt9N-0003xD-Rn for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 08 Jul 2017 13:04:10 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:42963) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dTt8z-0003n7-Ey; Sat, 08 Jul 2017 13:03:45 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1dTt8y-0007rQ-W0; Sat, 08 Jul 2017 13:03:45 -0400 In-reply-to: (message from Dmitry Gutov on Sat, 8 Jul 2017 13:29:28 +0300) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 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" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:216332 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. ]]] The goal here is to avoid having packages end up in the situation Magit is in now. They get into that situation because developers accept contributions without thinking of legal papers. They get contributions from one person, then another, then another 50 people, then another 50. The way to avoid this is by showing people what the situation is like and how they can avoid it. We need to educate the whole Emacs Lisp development community. > > I have a feeling that a lot of > > package authors choose MELPA because the barrier to entry is so low, and they > > may not realize how easy it is to get it into Emacs as well. > Try asking the MELPA developers about including that paragraph (or a > modified version) somewhere near the instructions for publishing > packages to MELPA. That notice approach won't be effective, because people would only see the notice when they have a package ready to use. That is too late. We want people to think of this when they START developing the package. To inform Emacs users when they load a package from outside ELPA would be more effective, because they would see it earlier -- well before they think about putting it in a repository. That approach would do the job, but it is not perfect. It is not perfectly targeted. Here's an idea that might be better targeted. The idea is to display a notice when the user edits a file in Emacs Lisp mode (other than .emacs). The code could avoid displaying the notice more than once per week -- using a timestamp for the last time it was displayed. To avoid these problems is important. By comparison, this occasional small annoyance is a small matter. -- 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.