Re: Next release

[David Kastrup]

Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> writes:

> Certainly, being the one who works on the code imposes some
> responsibility on you.

We need to have the code in Emacs in a state where an outside programmer
has a chance to read code and documentation and in a reasonable time
frame can understand enough of its workings to fix problems or extend
it.

If the code is not at that level, it is a time bomb.  I have (however
well-founded that may be) the impression that XEmacs is falling apart at
the seams due to central code parts that nobody feels fit to work on
anymore.

Now in this case, we had a conscious decision to incorporate code into
Emacs that was not in that state, and where its author was no longer
available.

Dan was a more vocal proponent of including the code, but that does not
make him better suited to do the integration work, just better suited
for bitching at.  But the work does not get done by bitching and
fingerpointing long enough, it does only get done by doing work.  Like
in a democracy, where there is just one common country to live in, the
decisions that were made by a majority have to be born by everybody.

It is good that Dan is doing a part of the necessary work, even on
platforms he does not work on himself.  And having worked on that makes
him a good candidate for further work, or for helping others getting
work done.

But it does not make him responsible for that, beyond the responsibility
that capable people feel compelled to take upon themselves to help the
less capable ones.  But he did not become more capable by magic or
birth, but by setting his mind on it and working on it.

The documentation state of multi-tty leaves a lot to be desired, and
that is the fault of work that did not get done yet.  But none of us is
in a situation where he could lean back and say "this certainly is
somebody else's job to do".

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum