4 ms·

Basically, a bunch of folks are trying to convince RMS to allow GCC to provide more information about parsed C++ programs to Emacs. This would allow Emacs to im

• tree_of_item 12y ago
  Eli's attempt to collect information seems well-intentioned but very silly. There's no way to make some finite list of the things you might want to do to enable an intelligent decision about what information to export from GCC. You want to be able to do everything, so you can write new program transforms as you think of them. Think of a Guile REPL with C++ syntax trees as values and a set of functions mapping trees to trees. That's the sort of thing that would be very helpful in thinking of what to do in the first place. It doesn't sound like Richard would appreciate this scenario though, which I find a little sad.
  • slowmovintarget 12y ago
    I hate to say it but RMS comes off as a bit petulant in this exchange. The "I'd advise you to stop 'pressuring' me or else" bits in particular. The other developers are trying to show him that he's keeping GCC crippled by design in order to preserve freedom. They argue that in doing so, the affect will be to drive people away toward more wide open tech, achieving the exact opposite of what RMS hopes to accomplish. When they cite examples of this already occurring, RMS responds with either a shrug ("it's already happened, so we can't stop it") or with the aforementioned "I'm offended." Stefan asks point blank: "Are you saying that if David writes this, and writes code for Emacs to make use of it, you're going to use your leverage to try and make sure this code doesn't make it into Emacs?" To which RMS responds: "We do not want to promote that sort of plugin." That's kind of sad.
    • GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
      He feels a threat to his authority and ideology and is responding accordingly.
  • strange_querk 12y ago
    It doesn't sound like Richard would appreciate this scenario though, which I find a little sad. Of course. That's why they're doing it. Everyone is walking on eggshells trying to appease RMS, but he's not having it. Later in the thread it sounds like he's about to have a tantrum. Someone calls him out and says that writing what RMS thinks would be acceptable is a waste of time to which RMS responds You consider it a waste of time, because you see the value in what I am trying to protect.
    • pivo 12y ago
      That was a typo he meant, "because you do not see the value in what I am trying to protect." He corrected himself in a later email to the thread.