Re: another javascript mode

[Dan Nicolaescu <dann@ics.uci.edu>]

Steve Yegge <steve.yegge@gmail.com> writes:

  > Dan Nicolaescu <dann <at> ics.uci.edu> writes:
  > 
  > > 
  > > 
  > > A new javascript mode was posted here:
  > > 
  > > http://code.google.com/p/js2-mode/
  > > 
  > > We were looking to include a mode for javascript, from the description
  > > this mode seems to be a better candidate for inclusion.
  > > Can someone that uses javascript check it out please?
  > > 
  > > 
  > 
  > I'm not sure about your timeframe, but I would expect that my js2-mode
  > needs at least another 3 to 4 months before it could be considered for
  > inclusion.  I only released it a few weeks ago, and people have reported
  > a wide range of annoyances, incompatibilities, style violations and bugs
  > that I need to fix.
  > 
  > I'm still actively working on it, so it just needs some time to bake.
  > 
  > If it's something that would need to happen sooner or risk being delayed
  > a very long time, please let me know and I can bump up the priority of
  > the work.

There's a tentative freeze date in June, what that means WRT adding a
javascript mode can probably be discussed with the maintainers.
(In general emacs is a very relaxed community).
Historically modes have been accepted even during the feature freezes.
But emacs is under new management, so policies might change.

But before talking about inclusion, we need to take care of the legal
side: copyright assignments from the authors need to be processed by the
FSF.  If you plan to contribute more to emacs, it is better to get a
copyright assignment that covers future contributions to emacs (i.e. not
only the javascript mode).

It's up to the author to decide when to have code included in emacs, but
the code does not need to be "perfect" to have it included.  If it's
already usable, development can continue after it is included.
There are some advantages of developing code which is included in emacs:
- many people routinely fix issues in various packages
- a large user base
- if bug fixes or features are needed in other places in emacs, it's
easy to fix/ add them.
- access to a large number of highly qualified emacs hackers :-)

Please feel free to ask for more details/clarifications.

Thanks

        --dan