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Why is Stallman still BDFL if he hasn't contributed a meaningful amount of code in years? Let him be the spokesperson so he gets the attention he desperately ne
by MatthewPhillips 14y ago
Why is Stallman still BDFL if he hasn't contributed a meaningful amount of code in years? Let him be the spokesperson so he gets the attention he desperately needs and leave the coding standards to people who code.
- dalke 14y agoThe FSF isn't about coding standards, its foremost about moral and ethical standards. Edit: Oops! You mean BFDL for GNU, as compared to the FSF. That's a good question - should Stallman relinquish GNU leadership? What is the replacement plan should something happen to him? I don't think that recent hands-on code experience necessarily plays a role in either case.
- piqufoh 14y agoAgreed, but by definition BDFL is FL - For Life.
- sigzero 14y agoI actually never heard that he was BDFL. I thought that only applied to Guido and Python.
- callmevlad 14y agoJohn Gruber considers himself to be the BDFL of Markdown [1], though many question the 'B' part. [1] http://www.mail-archive.com/markdown-discuss@six.pairlist.net/msg02703.html http://www.mail-archive.com/markdown-discuss@six.pairlist.ne...
- PuercoPop 14y agoI agree wholeheartedly, as Eben Moglen succintly put it in Die Gedanken Sind Frei: "The revolution runs on working code". Those write the code, make the shots. Free Software is a push effort. http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/publications/berlin-keynote.html http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/publications/berlin-keynote....
- eli_awry 14y agoFor the help of other people: BDFL = Benevolent Dictator for Life. Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_Dictator_for_Life http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_Dictator_for_Life ) doesnt list him as an example, but that doesn't stop him from being pretty close.
- bjourne 14y agoI wish people would stop parroting that stupid lie. RMS is curently heavily involved in GNU Emacs development and has been for many years. Just check the mailing list sometime.
- DannyBee 14y agoYes, where he has, for example, refused to allow emacs to use any sane bug tracking system because it would interfere with his workflow, despite the fact that he's not the only developer.