Re: emacs21-branch (Re: ognus)

[Denys Duchier <Denys.Duchier@ps.uni-sb.de>]

Dave Love <d.love@dl.ac.uk> writes:

> >>>>> "DD" == Denys Duchier <Denys.Duchier@ps.uni-sb.de> writes:
> 
>  DD> Perhaps not, but I find the opacity and the secrecy surrounding
>  DD> so many GNU projects rather frustrating.
> 
> What do you need to know to help you contribute that you think is
> being kept secret?

I think your reply is very symptomatic of what I find frustrating
about GNU projects: namely that one must petition the high priests in
order to obtain the slightest tidbits of information :-) Case in
point: Emacs.  Why does the general public have no information and no
access to the current developments?  Why should I have to be an
`accredited' contributor in order to have access to this information?

My remarks about CVS info for Gnus were motivated by the same
concerns.  Publishing a bit of information can make the on-going
development accessible to a much wider audience.  When I read the user
manual for a piece of software, I usually look for urls that would let
me know where it is currently maintained and developed.  I think the
Gnus user manual should of course contain this information.  Whether
details about the organization and assumptions of the CVS archive
should be in the "USER" manual or elsewhere is really not the issue,
as long as the information is sufficiently openly available as to
permit non-initiates to look in, possibly share the thrills of the
bleeding edge, and maybe eventually contribute, oooh... :-)

Cheers,

-- 
Dr. Denys Duchier			Denys.Duchier@ps.uni-sb.de
Forschungsbereich Programmiersysteme	(Programming Systems Lab)
Universitaet des Saarlandes, Geb. 45	http://www.ps.uni-sb.de/~duchier
Postfach 15 11 50			Phone: +49 681 302 5618
66041 Saarbruecken, Germany		Fax:   +49 681 302 5615