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: [ELPA] New package: activities Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2024 22:49:11 -0500 Message-ID: References: <0A512CBA-B05F-4E55-AA1D-72BF85E6F078@gmail.com> <7F448098-FBFD-4495-8FB4-1A035AAF2EC9@gmail.com> <25fcd3d0-3fa7-4b52-8afe-4f627c0f7f83@alphapapa.net> 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="1330"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" Cc: cavandusen@gmail.com, jdtsmith@gmail.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Adam Porter Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Thu Feb 01 04:50:04 2024 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 1rVO5U-00008x-OL for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Thu, 01 Feb 2024 04:50:04 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1] helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1rVO4g-0001mC-Jv; Wed, 31 Jan 2024 22:49:14 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1rVO4f-0001lz-0Q for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 31 Jan 2024 22:49:13 -0500 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::e]) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1rVO4e-0002Vg-AF; Wed, 31 Jan 2024 22:49:12 -0500 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gnu.org; s=fencepost-gnu-org; h=Date:References:Subject:In-Reply-To:To:From: mime-version; bh=Wh7RBsCdqJyETEqSV+kccW1qZZor7Onxz6VVfM/qZ2w=; b=Mi1gGfzT5eir zX6nHBLFPuGNPRHRPKiThxRwTZeNz9lkipnismRdcDOA/KCT4nLUse0CTobBV3IX98ZBz2Za5KW3H mxSjwInjej50sFMQToc/J2Fv0eZ/UBV4LlRcFg24lND5u4UaCAKTRBNbPfZc6r3nTdqgLuLdt8jlb h9aLRMyRDGewd8IvlUnBWVRvQtEqHTHW5jGB97nAQjh62t0B5C6eGsihzvubWNLsqeoO+0DUlAb5p OIc4ScKYvRFMFa8PncCfT620pEBeJS/NuM+ITCi669EYLrzcc0+OtqlNVCwaPIdPbTND2+/HlPaJb LfCNvuuJaHDyNTR32BXa2A==; Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1rVO4d-00072i-RB; Wed, 31 Jan 2024 22:49:11 -0500 In-Reply-To: <25fcd3d0-3fa7-4b52-8afe-4f627c0f7f83@alphapapa.net> (message from Adam Porter on Mon, 29 Jan 2024 18:24:48 -0600) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 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-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:315687 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. ]]] > > I’m not sure I follow. Most of the time package authors don’t > > ssy anything until they want to publish the package, so how can > > the maintainers suggest to them to contribute to an existing > > package? > > > > An alternative would be for potential package authors to post to > > emacs-devel, stating that they would like to see feature foo in > > package bar. If it turns out that it is not feasible to > > implement the feature, then sure, a new package can be created. > Please don't forget the possibility that the author has already > considered and rejected the idea to modify an existing library. I > reached this decision over 3 years ago, before I started working on > burly.el, which has led me to finally develop activities.el. Sometimes > it is best to start with a fresh perspective, rather than trying to > shoehorn ideas into an existing framework. First, I have no opinions about what to do with activities.el in particular. It could potentially be useful for many users, but it probably won't be useful for me on a Linux console. It doesn't seem to affect Emacs at a deeper level. So I decided to leave its design issues to others. I'm writing only about this broader question. I am glad that you first considered adding the feature to an existing package. Thinking about that was a wise thing to do. You reached the conclusion that it was better to make a new, separate package. Maybe that is right. (I don't know the details so I have no opinion about it.) Nonetheless, it would be good if everyone considering a new feature were to ask for advice on emacs-devel about the best way to implement it before starting to write it. -- 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)