From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Tom Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Issues with emacs (was Emacs users a dying breed?) Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2012 20:04:03 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: References: <87bokbb4zw.fsf@gnu.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1340481871 2641 80.91.229.3 (23 Jun 2012 20:04:31 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2012 20:04:31 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Jun 23 22:04:30 2012 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@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 1SiWZG-00007S-Lf for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 23 Jun 2012 22:04:26 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:47599 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SiWZG-0002BS-Ff for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 23 Jun 2012 16:04:26 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:56430) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SiWZB-0002BN-GM for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 23 Jun 2012 16:04:22 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SiWZ9-0005vH-PR for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 23 Jun 2012 16:04:21 -0400 Original-Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:57057) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SiWZ9-0005v4-Iq for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 23 Jun 2012 16:04:19 -0400 Original-Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1SiWZ6-0008SZ-1U for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 23 Jun 2012 22:04:16 +0200 Original-Received: from 94-21-239-107.pool.digikabel.hu ([94.21.239.107]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 23 Jun 2012 22:04:16 +0200 Original-Received: from adatgyujto by 94-21-239-107.pool.digikabel.hu with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 23 Jun 2012 22:04:16 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 34 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: sea.gmane.org User-Agent: Loom/3.14 (http://gmane.org/) X-Loom-IP: 94.21.239.107 (Opera/9.80 (Windows NT 6.1; U; en) Presto/2.10.289 Version/12.00) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 80.91.229.3 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:85395 Archived-At: Bastien gnu.org> writes: > > The good news is that, whether Emacs users are a dying breed > or not, the only remedy to this hypothetical issue is to have > more Emacs developers. > But how to have more developers. I see 3 possibilites: 1. Motivate more users to be volunteer developers? Any idea how to do that? 2. Attracting more users. Volunteer developers are some small percent of the active user base, so if Emacs can be mode more attractive to users then the bigger user base will bring more volunteer developers too. The problem is in order to be more attractive Emacs needs new features which other editors/IDEs have and which make users to choose those editors/IDEs instead of Emacs, and to implement those more competitive features Emacs needs more developers. 3. Crowdfunding. If we don't have enough volunteer developers then we need to motivate developers with something else. For example, paying for their work. For this model to work there should be some public exposure of this idea, so potential developers know they can potentially make a living while contributing to Emacs. This kind of public exposure could be done by RMS who could mention this development model in every interview he gives. He has the voice which can reach lots of ears, including potential developer ears.