From: Tassilo Horn <tassilo@member.fsf.org>
To: emacs-devel@gnu.org, "Richard M. Stallman" <rms@gnu.org>
Subject: Re: Release plans
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:42:13 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <200808191542.13388.tassilo@member.fsf.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <E1KVQCr-0003ob-Gm@fencepost.gnu.org>
On Tuesday 19 August 2008 14:21:01 Richard M. Stallman wrote:
Hi!
> Yes, indeed, but its also trivial to patch Emacs to run non-free
> extensions today.
>
> It is not trivial for most people.
But it's trivial for everybody who is capable of writing such a non-free
module. So let's say I want to distribute a non-free module (just an
example, I'm on the good side!). In order to do that right now, I'd do
the following steps.
1. I fork emacs and put some dynamic module loading facility in it, and
release the whole thing under GPLv3. Because the patch already
exists, that's not much work.
2. I provide my non-free module for my fork.
Now let's say emacs had a module loading facility, and each module would
have to register itself as being free in order to allow its loading. If
I wanted to create a non-free module then, I had two possibilities.
- Falsely register my module as free and FSF and me will meet at court.
(Is there a danger that a court will decide it's legal to register a
module as free if it's not?)
- Fork emacs like above and put the registration code out.
So basically I can always provide non-free modules if I fork emacs. The
costs for that are very low, no matter if emacs has or has no module
loading facility.
So let's now assume I want to provide a free module. Currently (without
the module loader) I'd have to fork emacs, too. But I'm a member of the
free software community, so I don't want to do that. As a result I'll
try to work around the limitations with some ugly hacks like a command
line interface for the library I want to use.
So to summarize: For someone who wants to create a non-free module, the
costs are the same, no matter if emacs has or has no dynamic module
loading support. For someone who wants to create a free module, the
availability of this feature in GNU Emacs is crucial.
The only danger I can see is that a module loader plus some nice, free
modules would push emacs reputation that high and create such an hype
that industry rediscoveres it as platform for their products. Honestly,
before that happens the moon becomes a square! ;-)
And at last I want to point out some features SXEmacs has (which has a
full blown foreign function interface) which could be very useful.
* Use emacs as X11 window manager (talk directly to XLib or xcb).
* It supports all image formats the free ImageMagick library supports.
* It has enhanced numbed types by binding to some free math library.
* It has some direct bindings to various databases.
* It downloads files by directly using libcurl.
Bye,
Tassilo
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2008-08-19 13:42 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 338+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2008-08-12 14:34 Release plans A Soare
2008-08-12 14:52 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-12 17:14 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-13 6:26 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-13 9:20 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-14 5:19 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-14 8:38 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-14 9:33 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-14 9:49 ` Alfred M. Szmidt
2008-08-14 10:04 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-14 10:30 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-14 11:07 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-14 11:44 ` Tassilo Horn
2008-08-14 12:27 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-15 12:45 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-14 12:39 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-14 13:15 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-14 13:28 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-14 13:41 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-14 17:08 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-14 14:30 ` Gilaras Drakeson
2008-08-14 18:00 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-15 12:45 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-15 14:18 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-15 17:54 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-15 12:45 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-15 16:29 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-16 10:40 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-14 10:37 ` Alfred M. Szmidt
2008-08-14 11:24 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-14 12:54 ` Alfred M. Szmidt
2008-08-14 13:31 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-14 14:02 ` Alfred M. Szmidt
2008-08-14 16:55 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-15 12:45 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-16 1:41 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-17 7:16 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-15 3:41 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-15 4:04 ` Sean O'Rourke
2008-08-15 20:12 ` Michael Ekstrand
2008-08-15 5:08 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-16 0:08 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-16 5:14 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-15 17:20 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-16 10:39 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-16 12:05 ` joakim
2008-08-17 7:16 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-17 9:32 ` joakim
2008-08-18 6:14 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-18 7:19 ` Tassilo Horn
2008-08-18 8:03 ` Stefan Monnier
2008-08-18 8:26 ` joakim
2008-08-19 12:21 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-19 13:02 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-20 3:47 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-20 5:20 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-19 13:42 ` Tassilo Horn [this message]
2008-08-20 3:48 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-18 14:20 ` Gilaras Drakeson
2008-08-18 17:13 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-18 17:42 ` Paul R
2008-08-19 12:21 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-20 0:01 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-21 23:09 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-22 0:34 ` whither GNU Thomas Lord
2008-08-22 0:17 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-08-22 3:40 ` David Robinow
2008-08-22 7:36 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-23 5:09 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-22 10:21 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-08-22 21:31 ` Thomas Lord
[not found] ` <858wuoad0u.fsf@lola.goethe.zz>
2008-08-23 4:56 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-16 16:29 ` Release plans Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-16 21:04 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-16 21:35 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-16 22:43 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-17 7:31 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-18 0:01 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-18 10:18 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-18 17:58 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-18 20:20 ` Dynamic loading (was: Release plans) Stefan Monnier
2008-08-18 22:18 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-20 16:15 ` Dynamic loading Stefan Monnier
2008-08-20 16:57 ` joakim
2008-08-25 13:09 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-26 16:37 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-18 21:09 ` Release plans Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-18 23:27 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-19 10:23 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-19 11:56 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-19 9:46 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-19 12:36 ` Robert J. Chassell
2008-08-20 5:55 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-20 17:48 ` Robert J. Chassell
2008-08-25 1:34 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-25 10:47 ` Robert J. Chassell
2008-08-25 13:13 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-25 15:19 ` Robert J. Chassell
2008-08-25 17:11 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-26 4:10 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-26 10:59 ` Robert J. Chassell
2008-08-27 5:00 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-27 11:37 ` Robert J. Chassell
2008-08-28 5:42 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-28 10:17 ` Robert J. Chassell
2008-08-26 16:37 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-26 18:14 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-27 18:54 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-27 20:33 ` Paul R
2008-08-29 2:41 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-29 5:34 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-29 11:39 ` Bruce Stephens
2008-08-29 13:11 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-29 19:23 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-29 20:03 ` Thien-Thi Nguyen
2008-08-29 20:20 ` Stefan Monnier
2008-08-29 20:53 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-29 23:24 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-29 22:56 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-30 19:51 ` Thien-Thi Nguyen
2008-08-30 23:07 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-31 9:09 ` Thien-Thi Nguyen
2008-08-29 22:53 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-31 9:27 ` Thien-Thi Nguyen
2008-08-29 19:13 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-29 23:48 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-09-01 6:11 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-09-01 18:25 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-27 22:32 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-27 21:57 ` Alfred M. Szmidt
2008-08-28 0:10 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-29 2:40 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-29 5:30 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-27 22:09 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-28 1:10 ` Thomas Lord
2008-09-01 6:11 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-09-01 18:09 ` Thomas Lord
2008-09-02 1:09 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-09-02 2:18 ` Thomas Lord
2008-09-02 14:13 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-09-02 20:48 ` Thomas Lord
2008-09-01 18:20 ` Stefan Monnier
2008-09-01 20:17 ` Thomas Lord
2008-09-01 19:53 ` Stefan Monnier
2008-09-01 21:23 ` Thomas Lord
2008-09-02 3:26 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-09-02 20:43 ` Thomas Lord
2008-09-03 5:08 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-27 23:09 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-28 0:22 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-28 1:01 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-26 21:25 ` joakim
2008-08-29 2:41 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-19 15:52 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-25 14:39 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-25 22:01 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-25 22:19 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-26 4:54 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-26 7:16 ` ["agree"] " Thomas Lord
2008-08-27 5:10 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-27 16:00 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-26 10:02 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-27 5:38 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-27 21:06 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-27 21:12 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-28 20:01 ` Sean Sieger
2008-08-28 6:07 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-27 15:57 ` Thien-Thi Nguyen
2008-08-27 18:33 ` tomas
2008-08-28 6:09 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-28 8:14 ` tomas
2008-08-28 7:25 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-28 8:23 ` tomas
2008-08-28 6:26 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-19 16:31 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-20 3:47 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-20 6:14 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-19 12:21 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-19 13:04 ` Paul R
2008-08-20 3:48 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-17 2:37 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-17 8:01 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-17 17:42 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-17 21:07 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-17 21:24 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-17 21:33 ` Alfred M. Szmidt
2008-08-17 22:31 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-18 3:06 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-18 6:14 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-17 21:45 ` Thien-Thi Nguyen
2008-08-18 6:14 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-18 17:09 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-19 16:28 ` René Kyllingstad
2008-08-20 3:48 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-17 7:16 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-15 3:41 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-15 17:17 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-16 10:40 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-16 7:14 ` Alfred M. Szmidt
2008-08-14 17:24 ` Stefan Monnier
2008-08-15 3:41 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-15 14:04 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-15 15:10 ` [OT] " Yavor Doganov
2008-08-16 7:05 ` Miles Bader
2008-08-17 7:16 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-15 16:35 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-15 18:07 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-16 10:40 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-16 10:40 ` Richard M. Stallman
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2008-08-14 15:36 Robert J. Chassell
2008-08-14 15:51 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-14 21:00 ` Robert J. Chassell
2008-08-14 22:58 ` Johannes Weiner
[not found] <SRV-ADEXCHyjlMFAVNL0000090e@waccglobal.org>
2008-08-13 14:07 ` Mike Rowse
2008-08-13 1:30 A Soare
2008-08-12 20:51 A Soare
2008-08-12 21:35 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-12 20:16 christophe
2008-08-12 18:57 A Soare
2008-08-12 18:54 A Soare
2008-08-12 18:58 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-12 18:41 A Soare
2008-08-12 18:46 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-12 18:55 ` Eli Zaretskii
2008-08-12 18:38 A Soare
2008-08-12 18:36 A Soare
2008-08-12 18:04 A Soare
2008-08-12 18:21 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-12 18:25 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-12 15:34 A Soare
2008-08-12 15:59 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-12 13:51 A Soare
2008-08-12 13:37 A Soare
2008-08-12 13:50 ` martin rudalics
2008-08-12 17:16 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-12 14:02 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-12 14:54 ` Paul R
2008-08-12 18:37 ` Eli Zaretskii
2008-08-12 19:16 ` Óscar Fuentes
2008-08-12 19:41 ` Paul R
2008-08-12 13:11 A Soare
2008-08-12 13:20 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-08-12 15:54 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-13 6:26 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-13 7:05 ` Johannes Weiner
2008-08-12 13:24 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-12 12:21 A Soare
2008-08-12 12:33 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-12 13:42 ` Michael Ekstrand
2008-08-13 6:27 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-13 7:14 ` Alex Ott
2008-08-12 14:45 ` Miles Bader
2008-08-12 14:56 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-12 16:47 ` Drew Adams
2008-08-13 20:20 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-12 18:34 ` Eli Zaretskii
2008-08-05 2:53 dhruva
2008-08-05 4:43 ` tomas
2008-08-05 21:48 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-07-31 9:54 dhruva
2008-07-31 22:01 ` Richard M Stallman
2008-07-30 9:58 dhruva
2008-07-31 1:59 ` Richard M Stallman
2008-07-31 9:30 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-07-31 22:01 ` Richard M Stallman
2008-08-01 14:15 ` Frank Schmitt
2008-08-01 14:51 ` Miles Bader
2008-08-02 5:12 ` Richard M Stallman
2008-08-02 7:20 ` Frank Schmitt
2008-08-03 1:33 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-03 11:38 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-08-03 22:42 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-03 23:16 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-08-04 15:55 ` Davi Leal
2008-08-05 21:48 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-12 4:48 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-12 7:30 ` Miles Bader
2008-08-12 15:37 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-12 10:32 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-12 16:08 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-13 20:20 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-03 13:48 ` Nic
2008-08-03 22:42 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-01 15:31 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-02 5:12 ` Richard M Stallman
2008-08-02 17:12 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-02 23:46 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-03 1:33 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-03 18:01 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-04 15:33 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-12 4:24 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-12 10:32 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-12 16:12 ` Thomas Lord
2008-08-03 1:33 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-03 17:51 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-04 15:33 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-04 19:08 ` Alan Mackenzie
2008-08-05 8:05 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-08-01 17:39 ` Davi Leal
2008-08-02 5:12 ` Richard M Stallman
2008-07-14 15:07 Chong Yidong
2008-07-17 0:27 ` Juri Linkov
2008-07-17 6:41 ` David Kastrup
2008-07-21 4:49 ` Chong Yidong
2008-07-21 8:06 ` Thien-Thi Nguyen
2008-07-21 13:32 ` Chong Yidong
2008-07-21 14:19 ` Thien-Thi Nguyen
2008-07-23 20:52 ` Michael Albinus
2008-07-23 21:42 ` Chong Yidong
2008-07-26 7:39 ` Eli Zaretskii
2008-07-26 21:33 ` Richard M Stallman
2008-07-27 3:22 ` Eli Zaretskii
2008-07-27 17:14 ` Richard M Stallman
2008-07-27 19:14 ` Eli Zaretskii
2008-07-28 21:46 ` Richard M Stallman
2008-07-29 3:12 ` Eli Zaretskii
2008-07-30 3:47 ` Richard M Stallman
2008-07-30 17:33 ` Eli Zaretskii
2008-07-28 13:43 ` Juri Linkov
2008-07-28 14:10 ` Chong Yidong
2008-07-28 14:33 ` Juri Linkov
2008-07-29 17:11 ` Chong Yidong
2008-07-29 17:54 ` Stefan Monnier
2008-07-29 15:21 ` Roland Winkler
2008-08-02 17:34 ` Eli Zaretskii
2008-08-09 18:29 ` Eli Zaretskii
2008-08-09 18:34 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-08-09 19:06 ` Eli Zaretskii
2008-07-31 2:10 ` Bastien
2008-07-31 2:43 ` Chong Yidong
2008-07-31 8:06 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-08-01 2:53 ` Bastien
2008-08-01 19:26 ` Jay Belanger
2008-08-01 19:32 ` Chong Yidong
2008-08-02 16:12 ` Jay Belanger
2008-08-02 4:08 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-08-02 17:30 ` Richard M Stallman
2008-08-05 4:04 ` Bill Wohler
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