From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Alan Mackenzie Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Release plans Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:30:40 +0000 Message-ID: <20080814103040.GB2593@muc.de> References: <10697146.3630221218551689983.JavaMail.www@wwinf4615> <20080812171404.GB7999@muc.de> <20080813092057.GA3010@muc.de> <20080814083817.GA2593@muc.de> <877iak7xfp.fsf@skyscraper.fehenstaub.lan> <873al79akr.fsf@skyscraper.fehenstaub.lan> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1218710145 32468 80.91.229.12 (14 Aug 2008 10:35:45 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:35:45 +0000 (UTC) Cc: ams@gnu.org, rms@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Johannes Weiner Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Aug 14 12:36:36 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1KTaBj-0001at-0x for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:36:15 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:50699 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KTaAm-0007We-Jz for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:35:16 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1KTa4J-0005gl-IM for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:28:35 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1KTa4H-0005gM-RI for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:28:34 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=37359 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KTa4H-0005gB-GZ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:28:33 -0400 Original-Received: from colin.muc.de ([193.149.48.1]:1633 helo=mail.muc.de) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1KTa4G-0001Pe-R4 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:28:33 -0400 Original-Received: (qmail 53413 invoked by uid 3782); 14 Aug 2008 10:28:30 -0000 Original-Received: from acm.muc.de (pD9E522E5.dip.t-dialin.net [217.229.34.229]) by colin2.muc.de (tmda-ofmipd) with ESMTP; Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:28:28 +0200 Original-Received: (qmail 4368 invoked by uid 1000); 14 Aug 2008 10:30:40 -0000 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <873al79akr.fsf@skyscraper.fehenstaub.lan> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.9i X-Delivery-Agent: TMDA/1.1.5 (Fettercairn) X-Primary-Address: acm@muc.de X-detected-kernel: by monty-python.gnu.org: FreeBSD 4.6-4.9 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:102438 Archived-At: Hi, Johannes, On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 12:04:36PM +0200, Johannes Weiner wrote: > Hi, > We can fix the former if our definition of freedom allows us to. This > was the whole point of my previous email, in fact. > Emacs has still no support to load shared libraries during runtime and > IIRC it was rejected back then due to political reasons. I call this > crippling. Well, for a piece of software that is crippled, Emacs works remarkably well. If only non-crippled software could run as fast. I think the lack of provision of binary libraries is more of a legal thing than a political one. It would allow people to extend Emacs with non-free code, and it would be problematic to prevent them distributing their enslaved versions of Emacs. I agree with Richard that this would be undesirable in the extreme. Linux has taken the opposite attitude: that extending Linux with non-free modules is OK. This has not been free of problems. If there were a way of licensing Emacs so that only free libraries could be attached to it, this would be done. What sort of libraries do you want to use from Emacs anyway? > Hannes -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).