bug#4367: 23.1; unable to view this png image

[Jason Rumney <jasonr@gnu.org>]

Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> it is trivial to include the dll libs for images.
>>     
>
> No, it isn't: there are various copyright issues

I would hope not.

My reason for not including image DLLs with the official release are 
twofold:

1. The effort required to keep up with security bugs in at least 6 
different image related libraries, and to figure out how to get all of 
those libraries to compile on Windows (many other ports are not as well 
documented and maintained as Emacs in this respect).

2. The need to include a lot of third party source on the GNU ftp server 
- this may make it misleading as to the origin of that source, and may 
invite irrelevant bug reports.


I find it surprising that people have such strong views about the 
inability of a TEXT EDITOR to display various image formats out of the 
box.  We ship enough third party libraries for Emacs to display all the 
graphical components of its own interface, isn't that enough?