From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Elisp LSP Server Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2021 18:43:50 -0400 Message-ID: References: <16338bdc2497fc51c6fb6d54ab370bfb@webmail.orcon.net.nz> <87ee99dv34.fsf@gmail.com> <07cf50ddddb5a9556aa94201a7ac88c9@webmail.orcon.net.nz> <87r1d0562u.fsf@yahoo.com> <87r1cz7qcd.fsf@posteo.net> <87bl4367av.fsf@yahoo.com> <87fstf7kz4.fsf@posteo.net> <87o8814q1v.fsf@yahoo.com> <87r1cs9faa.fsf@yahoo.com> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Utf-8 Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="13166"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" Cc: philipk@posteo.net, psainty@orcon.net.nz, emacs-devel@gnu.org, luangruo@yahoo.com, joaotavora@gmail.com, mardani29@yahoo.es To: Ag Ibragimov Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Wed Oct 13 00:48:30 2021 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1maQZS-0003EZ-Da for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Wed, 13 Oct 2021 00:48:30 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:57376 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1maQZQ-0004HD-W4 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Tue, 12 Oct 2021 18:48:29 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:38164) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1maQUx-0005uX-HX for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 12 Oct 2021 18:43:51 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::e]:34662) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1maQUw-0007sa-MK; Tue, 12 Oct 2021 18:43:50 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1maQUw-0001f5-5z; Tue, 12 Oct 2021 18:43:50 -0400 In-Reply-To: (message from Ag Ibragimov on Tue, 12 Oct 2021 00:29:31 -0500) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 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-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:276842 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. ]]] > > Instead of making it easier for people to put their customizations on > > GitHub, how about making it harder? It would encourage people to move > > to systems that do not require running proprietary software. > Do you seriously believe that? We should deliberately hinder our own > progress, hoping it somehow would hurt GitHub? The issue here is what constitutes "progress". What does progress mean, in any given situation? Would a language server for Emacs Lisp be progress? It would be a mistake to assume so. Our work proceeds by replacing nonfree programs. Why do that? Because each one is an injustice -- denies freedom to its users by giving its developer power over them. A nonfree program is not an inferior solution; it is a problem. We can fix that problem by replacing it with free software, so that it can't do wrong to people any more. When we can't supersede a particular nonfree program in the near future, we should be careful not to be led into enhancing its use. Thus, when someone says, "Let's implement XYZ; it will be convenient for users that want to do ABC," we must ask: What is ABC, and is making ABC more convenient a good thing? Popular nonfree programs have many users, and they will innocently suggest we direct our work to make their use of nonfree software more convenient. I don't blame them for suggesting this, but it is not what we should do. We have to do careful thinking about what constitutes progress in this particular situation. We have to find the various options -- including mixtures of the obvious options -- and think about what good and bad effects they would have. Finding the right choice may be subtle and complex. But we can't find the right choice if we don't evaluate it based on the right values and goals. Facilitating the use of VS Code or GitHub is not a goal; encouraging people to stop using them is a goal. -- Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org) Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org) Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)