[ELPA] New package: smalltalk-mode

[ELPA] New package: smalltalk-mode

[Derek Zhou]

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smalltalk-mode is the emacs editing mode for GNU smalltalk. Attached is
the version copied verbatim from GNU smalltalk current git HEAD, last
commit is:
commit 8141da457870e24b0e04684213637b7c4435a2a5
Author: Wilfred Hughes <me@wilfred.me.uk>
Date:   Wed Nov 29 21:22:34 2017 +0000

GNU smalltalk itself is copyrighted by FSF, so I think it is qualified
to be included in the ELPA. If the format need changing please let me
know.


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Re: [ELPA] New package: smalltalk-mode

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Derek Zhou <derek@shannon-data.com>
> Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2019 22:59:10 +0800
> 
> smalltalk-mode is the emacs editing mode for GNU smalltalk. Attached is
> the version copied verbatim from GNU smalltalk current git HEAD, last
> commit is:
> commit 8141da457870e24b0e04684213637b7c4435a2a5
> Author: Wilfred Hughes <me@wilfred.me.uk>
> Date:   Wed Nov 29 21:22:34 2017 +0000
> 
> GNU smalltalk itself is copyrighted by FSF, so I think it is qualified
> to be included in the ELPA. If the format need changing please let me
> know.
> 
> ;;; smalltalk-mode.el --- Major mode for the Smalltalk programming language
> 
> ;; Author: Steve Byrne
> ;; Version: 3.2.92
> ;; Copyright 1988-92, 1994-95, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009
> ;; Free Software Foundation, Inc.
> 
> ;; This file is part of GNU Smalltalk.
> 
> ;; GNU Smalltalk is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
> ;; under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
> ;; Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later
> ;; version.
> 
> ;; GNU Smalltalk is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
> ;; WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
> ;; or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
> ;; for more details.
> 
> ;; You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
> ;; with GNU Smalltalk; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the Free
> ;; Software Foundation, 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.

Not sure what this all means from the legal POV.  Lately, Richard
asked us to make sure people who contribute code to ELPA and have
copyright assignments for Emacs to say clearly that they contribute
the code for Emacs, in order for the assignment to be effective.

OTOH, you are saying this is part of GNU Smalltalk, which has separate
assignments.

On the third hand, I'm not sure who should be the author of the
commit, should we decide to put this on ELPA.

Richard, can you please advise?

Thanmks.

Re: [ELPA] New package: smalltalk-mode

[Stefan Monnier]

> Not sure what this all means from the legal POV.  Lately, Richard
> asked us to make sure people who contribute code to ELPA and have
> copyright assignments for Emacs to say clearly that they contribute
> the code for Emacs, in order for the assignment to be effective.
>
> OTOH, you are saying this is part of GNU Smalltalk, which has separate
> assignments.

I think it's fine: the copyright does belong to the FSF.  Which project
a file/package belongs to is only important w.r.t when someone
contributes a patch, so it's OK for a file to be covered by some patches
made to Emacs and some patches made to Smalltalk, as long as each patch
was contributed under the project for which the author had signed the
corresponding paperwork.

> On the third hand, I'm not sure who should be the author of the
> commit, should we decide to put this on ELPA.

The way I'm planning to add it to elpa.git is to first extract the Git
history of smalltalk-mode.el and then push that to elpa.git, so we don't
have to answer that question ;-)


        Stefan

Re: [ELPA] New package: smalltalk-mode

[Stefan Monnier]

> Not sure what this all means from the legal POV.  Lately, Richard
> asked us to make sure people who contribute code to ELPA and have
> copyright assignments for Emacs to say clearly that they contribute
> the code for Emacs, in order for the assignment to be effective.

Actually, looking at the gnu-smalltalk mailing-list, I think the first
question is whether GNU smalltalk actually wants smalltalk-mode to be on
GNU ELPA.

As you can see in

    http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-smalltalk/2019-03/msg00001.html

Derek has asked already, but I think the answers he got show some
misunderstanding of how GNU ELPA works.


        Stefan

Re: [ELPA] New package: smalltalk-mode

[Derek Zhou]

Eli Zaretskii writes:

>> From: Derek Zhou <derek@shannon-data.com>
>> Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2019 22:59:10 +0800
>> 
>> smalltalk-mode is the emacs editing mode for GNU smalltalk. Attached is
>> the version copied verbatim from GNU smalltalk current git HEAD, last
>> commit is:
>> commit 8141da457870e24b0e04684213637b7c4435a2a5
>> Author: Wilfred Hughes <me@wilfred.me.uk>
>> Date:   Wed Nov 29 21:22:34 2017 +0000
>> 
>> GNU smalltalk itself is copyrighted by FSF, so I think it is qualified
>> to be included in the ELPA. If the format need changing please let me
>> know.
>> 
>
> Not sure what this all means from the legal POV.  Lately, Richard
> asked us to make sure people who contribute code to ELPA and have
> copyright assignments for Emacs to say clearly that they contribute
> the code for Emacs, in order for the assignment to be effective.
>
> OTOH, you are saying this is part of GNU Smalltalk, which has separate
> assignments.
>
> On the third hand, I'm not sure who should be the author of the
> commit, should we decide to put this on ELPA.
>
> Richard, can you please advise?
>
> Thanmks.

GNU Smalltalk was maintained by Paolo Bonzini <bonzini@gnu.org> until
around 2012, then he passed the torch to Holger Hans Peter Freyther
<holger@freyther.de>. The smalltalk mode was originally written by Steve
Byrne whose email I cannot find. Various people made changes along the
way, including Paolo. Latest commit to the file was done by Wilfred
Hughes <me@wilfred.me.uk>. I put all 3 people on the CC: list to
comment.

I am not a lawyer, but this code is owned by FSF, just like emacs
itself. I don't see how it can be a legal problem to move changes from
one pocket to the other. All authors already gave up their copyright by
the original assignment. We can ask again and I am pretty sure all
authors will be thrilled to have a broader audience for the free
software they created.

Derek

Re: [ELPA] New package: smalltalk-mode

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ 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. ]]]

  > I am not a lawyer, but this code is owned by FSF, 

We need to verify that that is true, not a clerical error.
Steve Burne assigned copyright for GNU Smalltalk in 1990.
If this file is part of what he assigned, then it is indeed
copyright FSF, and we can indeed move it into Emacs if we wish.



-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation (https://gnu.org, https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)