From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Thien-Thi Nguyen Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: VMS support Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:27:33 +0200 Message-ID: <87k5fcc2ui.fsf@ambire.localdomain> References: <87iquzmcxm.fsf@stupidchicken.com> <87d4l76ntu.fsf@ambire.localdomain> <8763qznhfd.fsf@stupidchicken.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1216809604 5694 80.91.229.12 (23 Jul 2008 10:40:04 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:40:04 +0000 (UTC) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Jul 23 12:40:52 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 1KLbm7-0000lv-Jd for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:40:51 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:46447 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KLblE-0007y7-4F for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:39:56 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1KLbcW-0005Bo-42 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:30:57 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1KLbcO-0005B1-Lm for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:30:50 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=46619 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KLbcL-0005AI-Jf for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:30:46 -0400 Original-Received: from [151.61.140.238] (port=41935 helo=ambire.localdomain) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1KLbcK-0007yH-H9 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:30:45 -0400 Original-Received: from ttn by ambire.localdomain with local (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1KLbZG-0007jk-4e for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:27:34 +0200 In-Reply-To: <8763qznhfd.fsf@stupidchicken.com> (Chong Yidong's message of "Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:52:38 -0400") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.0.60 (gnu/linux) X-detected-kernel: by monty-python.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. 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:101302 Archived-At: () Chong Yidong () Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:52:38 -0400 What is the situation with the VMS support? AFAICT, ttn was working on getting it to work again, but I haven't heard anything about this project since. Emacs 21.2 was the last known-good port, but that requires out-of-tree code due to legal issues (specifically: the author of a big chunk of VMS-specific code filed in 1992 a "copyright disclaimer" only, which is not equal in force to a "copyright assignment" IIUC, and repeated attempts to get the (standard) past/future copyright assignment from him (by me and perhaps others) have failed, even though he has indicated in 200[45]-ish email that he is willing to do so). These legal issues might still be resolvable (i can try engaging him again), but i cannot say for sure. More details, including (lack-of-)progress/technical info, are at: http://www.gnuvola.org/software/emacs-for-vms/ Dan Nicolaescu has suggested removing VMS support for the purpose of code cleanup. WDYT? I think removing VMS support is fine, but not for the purpose of code cleanup. That reason implies that clean VMS support should be kept. A better reason is that VMS is proprietary and Emacs users on VMS have not shown sufficient interest in it. If VMS support is to be removed, please do a complete job and remove it from the Lisp and config/build/doc/admin parts of Emacs, as well. thi