From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: clang vs free software Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 18:02:13 -0500 Message-ID: References: <87fvqtg02v.fsf@flea.lifelogs.com> <87sitkzahs.fsf@yandex.ru> <52D7DAAB.2070709@yandex.ru> <52D81960.2080408@yandex.ru> <52DA8C17.4080707@yandex.ru> <52DC00E5.3020803@yandex.ru> <52DC6A26.3020003@yandex.ru> <87k3dv9z85.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> <87eh439w1n.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> <87ha8yqvup.fsf@engster.org> <87r47zezcc.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1390690930 20614 80.91.229.3 (25 Jan 2014 23:02:10 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 23:02:10 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Helmut Eller Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Jan 26 00:02:19 2014 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1W7CF0-0005Gk-AH for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 26 Jan 2014 00:02:18 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:52813 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1W7CF0-00044S-09 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 25 Jan 2014 18:02:18 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:42050) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1W7CEx-00044K-8d for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 25 Jan 2014 18:02:16 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1W7CEv-0005ZW-LH for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 25 Jan 2014 18:02:15 -0500 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:51427) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1W7CEv-0005ZM-Io for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 25 Jan 2014 18:02:13 -0500 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1W7CEv-0003Mw-4k; Sat, 25 Jan 2014 18:02:13 -0500 In-reply-to: (message from Helmut Eller on Thu, 23 Jan 2014 15:26:57 +0100) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Error: Malformed IPv6 address (bad octet value). X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:169092 Archived-At: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] We don't want to make a program's entire AST available for parsing because that would make it easy to extend GCC with proprietary programs. If we had allowed this, we would have brought on the same problem that LLVM is causing: GCC would then change from a free compiler into a platform for nonfree compilers. However, making available the symbol table (identifiers and their types) would not cause this problem. It just needs someone to write the code. Maybe nobody bothers because using clang is easier than to fight with FSF policies. If you mean the policy that we don't let GCC become a platform for proprietary compilers, what does it mean to think of this as something to "fight"? It means that one does not value defending freedom for the users. It means considering technical progress more important. Those are the sort of values that make freedom vulnerable -- that gave us LLVM, for instance. The consequences will be seen in the non-free compilers based on LLVM which, had they been based on GCC instead, would have been free. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin St Boston MA 02110 USA www.fsf.org www.gnu.org Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software. Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call.