From: Chris Morgan <mihalis@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Ada mode requests (Re: Ada vs C++ vs Java)
Date: 1999/02/03
Date: 1999-02-03T15:14:58-06:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <874sp34287.fsf@mihalis.ix.netcom.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 36b89f98.2045516@news.demon.co.uk
john@assen.demon.co.uk.nospam (John McCabe) writes:
> The point is that there is an *official* ada-mode that is bundled with
> GNU Emacs and is maintained by an *official* maintainer. By making
> significant changes that affect the generality of the package without
> renaming it has confused the issue.
Perhaps, and then only if you go their website or a mirror, take their
altered version, install it on your computer yourself, and then try to
use a different compiler from the one they provide. If you're a GNAT
user however, the "ACT Ada mode" for GNU Emacs is the best thing since
sliced bread.
I'm fairly certain RISCAda from Alsys came with an Ada-mode for emacs
too but it was also not the "one true Ada-mode" as it worked with
their other GUI tools.
>
> >I think you will find that Richard Stallman would be quite unconcerned
> >that Emacs Ada mode works best with GNU Ada. After all he only
> >recently suggested switching GNU libraries to GPL rather than LGPL
> >leaving commercial software out in the cold. Of course in this case I
> >doubt ACT will agree with him having demonstrated concern for the
> >wider Ada community more adequately at this stage.
>
> I would think that he may be concerned that someone other than the
> official maintainer of ada-mode for Emacs is passing off their version
> as Emacs' ada-mode.
Look, this is free software. There's not really much weight to being
an official anything to do with free software. Richard Kenner is the
official maintainer of GCC. That doesn't mean the egcs team did
anything bad by branching the source code. ACT is the official
maintainer of GNAT, but Markus and his merry band of "GNAT for Linux"
hackers will probably be distributing patched up versions of the
public GNAT releases in the not too distant future. Branching and
merging is the way of life for these projects.
If the official maintainer of "the one true Ada-mode" likes what ACT
has done, he can simply take it, break it into specialised and general
purpose pieces, rename the former with GNAT_ and then incorporate
those pieces into the distribution. At that point ACT may well switch
their work to his latest version or continue on with their own
branched version. If you don't like it, DON'T USE IT! DEMAND A
REFUND!!
This kind of process has given us Gnus, XEmacs and XFree86. In each
case some people have said "oh please don't confuse the issue" but
something good has come of it (ok, I'm not sure if anyone complained
about Gnus, but the official maintainer of GNUS was probably not about
to do the work that Lars Magne Ingewhatsit has done). It's a form of
healthy evolutionary biodiversity. It's why X/Open is not able to
screw over Linux users for X/Xt royalties as the XFree team got in
there just in time and branched off a version before the fees were
instituted.
As to your use of the term "passing off" I think this is
unjustified. If you don't go to an ftp directory full of stuff from
ACT and grab the Ada-mode from there how does one get "misled" this
way? If you do, surely it's up to you?
Chris
--
Chris Morgan <mihalis at ix.netcom.com http://mihalis.net
next prev parent reply other threads:[~1999-02-03 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 46+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1999-01-26 0:00 Ada mode requests (Re: Ada vs C++ vs Java) bourguet
1999-01-26 0:00 ` dewar
1999-01-27 0:00 ` bourguet
1999-01-27 0:00 ` John McCabe
[not found] ` <36affcb4.14065782@news.geccs.gecm.com>
1999-01-27 0:00 ` Simon Wright
1999-01-29 0:00 ` John McCabe
1999-01-30 0:00 ` dewar
[not found] ` <36b7695a.2630918@news.geccs.gecm.com>
1999-02-02 0:00 ` Chris Morgan
1999-02-03 0:00 ` John McCabe
1999-02-03 0:00 ` Chris Morgan [this message]
1999-02-04 0:00 ` John McCabe
1999-02-04 0:00 ` Chris Morgan
1999-02-05 0:00 ` John McCabe
1999-02-04 0:00 ` EMACS Ada Mode Maintenance dewar
1999-02-04 0:00 ` dennison
1999-02-05 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-02-05 0:00 ` briot
1999-02-05 0:00 ` John McCabe
1999-02-05 0:00 ` dewar
1999-02-05 0:00 ` John McCabe
1999-02-05 0:00 ` John McCabe
1999-02-05 0:00 ` dewar
1999-02-05 0:00 ` John McCabe
1999-02-07 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
1999-01-12 0:00 Ada vs C++ vs Java Leszek Sczaniecki
1999-01-13 0:00 ` Erik Funkenbusch
1999-01-14 0:00 ` Gerhard Menzl
1999-01-14 0:00 ` John Birch
1999-01-15 0:00 ` Gerhard Menzl
1999-01-15 0:00 ` John Birch
1999-01-16 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-01-18 0:00 ` dennison
1999-01-18 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-01-19 0:00 ` Crazy Pete
1999-01-19 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-01-20 0:00 ` Christopher Browne
1999-01-19 0:00 ` bill
1999-01-20 0:00 ` dennison
1999-01-20 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-01-20 0:00 ` dennison
1999-01-21 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-01-21 0:00 ` Al Christians
1999-01-21 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-01-21 0:00 ` Al Christians
1999-01-22 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-01-21 0:00 ` bill_1
1999-01-22 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-01-22 0:00 ` Ada mode requests (Re: Ada vs C++ vs Java) dennison
1999-01-22 0:00 ` David C. Hoos, Sr.
1999-01-24 0:00 ` dewar
1999-01-28 0:00 ` John McCabe
1999-01-29 0:00 ` John McCabe
1999-01-29 0:00 ` dewar
1999-01-29 0:00 ` John McCabe
1999-01-30 0:00 ` robert_dewar
1999-01-30 0:00 ` John McCabe
1999-01-25 0:00 ` John McCabe
[not found] ` <36afc1ec.20165240@news.geccs.gecm.com>
1999-01-26 0:00 ` John McCabe
1999-01-27 0:00 ` dennison
[not found] ` <36b019e5.897220@news.geccs.gecm.com>
1999-01-28 0:00 ` John McCabe
[not found] ` <36b170cd.1793333@news.geccs.gecm.com>
1999-01-29 0:00 ` John McCabe
1999-01-29 0:00 ` dewar
1999-01-29 0:00 ` Samuel Tardieu
1999-01-30 0:00 ` John McCabe
1999-01-22 0:00 ` dennison
1999-01-22 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1999-01-22 0:00 ` dennison
1999-01-22 0:00 ` David C. Hoos, Sr.
1999-01-24 0:00 ` robert_dewar
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