Re: Perl embedding: trial balloon
John Tobey writes:
Per Abrahamsen <abraham(a)dina.kvl.dk> wrote:
> #3 (Single Perl+Emacs executable): Gross! Go away!
I have a feeling that is what RMS says when people tell him about
XEmacs. The difference between dynamic and static linking is mainly
psychological.
GNU Emacs does a good job satisfying the editing requirements of
Richard Stallman. I thought XEmacs sought to do the same for the rest
of the world, but apparently it is only for the rest of the
Lisp-speaking world. Perhaps we should fork an X^2Emacs that goes the
rest of the way.
I have to say that I am flatly floored by what I have read over the
last few hours.
To John: Keep the faith, and keep doing good work. There are lots of
people who want what you're doing. I suggest ignoring the attitude,
and focusing on the work rather than forking a new strain just because
some key people need to have their world views enlargened..
To the XEmacs beta team: You guys need to get a life. I really
cannot believe what I have read from you guys on this topic recently.
It's not the facts that floor me, its the attitude.
So you don't like Perl. Fine. Who cares what you languages you like,
anyway? So you don't want XEmacs hooked up to too many different
things. Tough. It's going to happen whether you like it or not.
Maybe you've forgotten what the GPL is all about? After seeing what
has been said to John, I feel certain that my own purposes in
inquiring about Elisp/C extension coupling would not impress you
either. So what's your goal? To drive away people toting uncouth
baggage? Or to make XEmacs a flexible and powerful work environment?
You guys need to get that straight and let us know.
Should you decide you want to make XEmacs into a platform which can
foster the creative inclinations of people beyond your core team, you
might oughtta invest a little time in making it as easy as possible,
and as safe as practicable, for people to dynamically load in modules
they want, that you don't want in the core distribution.
In any event, please cut John--and by obvious extension, the rest of
the world--some slack for being interested in more things than just
Elisp, and tone down all this rhetoric. It makes it hard to
concentrate on the work. I for one, have a lot to learn about XEmacs,
both the lisp side, and the C internals. And I would like to believe
I have the freedom to ask questions on the beta channel. Although I
have actually gotten many helpful snipets over the last few weeks,
including a little constructive advice at the top of this thread, I
have to say that seeing all this attitude projected at John has
definitely cast a cold frost across the XEmacs landscape.
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