From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: JD Smith Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Reordering etc/NEWS Date: Wed, 09 May 2007 10:54:26 -0700 Message-ID: References: <2wmz0iriyj.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1178733335 28488 80.91.229.12 (9 May 2007 17:55:35 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 17:55:35 +0000 (UTC) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed May 09 19:55:34 2007 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 1HlqNw-0006C1-OG for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 09 May 2007 19:55:32 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1HlqVA-0008KB-2Z for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 09 May 2007 14:03:00 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1HlqV6-0008Ju-VF for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 09 May 2007 14:02:57 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1HlqV4-0008Ji-Gb for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 09 May 2007 14:02:56 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1HlqV4-0008Jf-CY for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 09 May 2007 14:02:54 -0400 Original-Received: from main.gmane.org ([80.91.229.2] helo=ciao.gmane.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1HlqNq-0000XA-4U for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 09 May 2007 13:55:26 -0400 Original-Received: from list by ciao.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.43) id 1HlqNe-0003o0-Tp for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 09 May 2007 19:55:15 +0200 Original-Received: from turtle.as.arizona.edu ([128.196.208.207]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 09 May 2007 19:55:14 +0200 Original-Received: from jdsmith by turtle.as.arizona.edu with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 09 May 2007 19:55:14 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 24 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: turtle.as.arizona.edu User-Agent: Pan/0.14.2.91 (As She Crawled Across the Table) X-detected-kernel: Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) 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:70695 Archived-At: I can offer the perspective of a minor (very minor) contributor to Emacs. When I was a student, I found some (to me) real deficiencies in the way colored annotation for CVS and the VC back end worked. I learned a bit of lisp, applied some basic color scaling theory, and produced a patch which added great new functionality. I got in touch with the VC maintainers, who were enthusiastic, and, after some tweaking, they added my code into Emacs. Total success! Or so it would seem. That was Summer, 2001. Six years later, and the fruits of my early toil still aren't available in any released version of Emacs. So, while I continue to maintain a personally relevant programming mode, and contribute bug fixes where they impact that mode, I have not taken on any other "feature improvements" to Emacs. To me, the value equation just doesn't compute. >>From my perspective, Emacs is an ancient, deeply rooted culture, with its own customs and beliefs, established long ago. I am an outsider by almost any definition of the term. That I do not feel justified in challenging these customs does not change the fact that the long and inscrutable release cycle has dampened my interest in contributing. -- JD Smith