Re: help

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > Hi, I'm Josh. I'm relatively new to open source development and wanted to
  > work on something I was passionate about (EMACs),

Thank you for being interested in contributing to GNU Emacs.
The main developers can suggest something to try implementing.

I should explain that we don't use the term "open source" to describe
what we are doing.  We call it "free software" -- free as in freedom.
A free program respects users' freedom; a nonfree program denies users
freedom.  See fsf.org/tedx for an introduction to the idea of the free
software movement, followed by
https://gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html

"Open source" is a business-friendly offshoot of the free software
movement.  It dismissses the issue of computing freedom as a concern
and focuses on practical benefits such as technical progress.

If you contribute well to GNU Emacs, we won't ask you about your
philosophical views.  We'll simply appreciate your help.  But it's
important for you to know what this is all about.  Don't be surprised
if we have policies that diverge from what you're used to, because our
goals also diverge from what our society is used to.


-- 
Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org)
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)