Re: GNU Emacs raison d'etre

[tomas]

On Thu, May 21, 2020 at 11:33:25AM +0200, Arthur Miller wrote:
> <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > On Thu, May 21, 2020 at 01:07:41AM +0300, Dmitry Gutov wrote:

[...]

> > So I'd expect a more complex community to have gathered around
> > Emacs by now.
> Why? :-)

Because people just don't die that quickly [1] ;-P

> > Basically, I think the main "asset" of a software project
> > to be it's community [...]

[...]

> Indeed. But for anything to live long, it needs to adapt to changs, and
> software/IT community changes rapidly.

Fads, I tell you [2] ;-P

> That seems to be basic law of
> evolution. Emacs does not seem to adapt despite being super adaptable
> software package so well. Is community big enough to be sustainable in
> long term?

> > In my eyes, Emacs is doing an outstanding job on that.

> Personally I don't think Emacs will go extinct any time soon, neither,
> but what will happen in next 40 years? Is it important though? But I
> would like to see bigger community now so we get even more developers
> and even better Emacs :-)

Yes -- and part of the job is, whenever there is a complex community,
discussing with them on what "better" means. And being prepared to
accept that there are other opinions.

Or forking. Both is OK. Heck, if you are careful about it, forking
hasn't to be hostile. And it can be productive, too (cf. XEmacs).

Cheers

[1] that was somewhat tongue-in-cheek. I am surprised that
   ask why a culture complexifies as it evolves.

[2] Of course an exaggeration too. But look back: 1980 it
   was OO all-over-the-place (Smalltalk was picking height).
   Then it culminated with Java (which I call the 2000's COBOL).
   Then it was Hindley-Milner. Now it is leftpad -- uh -- npm.
   Emacs has seen those come and go :-)
   The art (and you *never* know you'll succeed at that) is
   to pick up *some* of that.

-- tomás

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