RMS Steps Down As Emacs Maintainer

sigzero writes "Short but sweet: RMS is stepping down as Emacs Maintainer: 'From: Richard Stallman, Subject: Re: Looking for a new Emacs maintainer or team, Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:57:22 -0500 Stefan and Yidong offered to take over, so I am willing to hand over Emacs development to them."

Maybe...

[imageboard]

Maybe he switched to vim.

As expected.

[ozmanjusri]

Concise, elegant and minimalistic, just like Emacs.

no, wait....

Are maintainers even necessary?

[InterruptDescriptorT]

I thought emacs had become self-aware by now...

Butterfly effect?

[griffjon]

You could've predicted this using C-x M-c M-Butterfly [xkcd.org] while editing emacs code inside emacs...

Re:As expected.

[smittyoneeach]

(asdf-what-is-that-supposed-to-mean)
(asdf-just-because-the-code-is-all-in-one-namespace-p
asdf-does-not-make-it-ineffective))

Re:Maybe...

[Brian Gordon]

That was implemented as a 37-key combination so no human could possibly complete it :)

Re:Are maintainers even necessary?

[cptnapalm]

Yeah, but it still gets lonely...

Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

A bit like Castro leaving power.

Re:Maybe...

[rubycodez]

you mean upgraded

Re:As expected.

[Jugalator]

Concise, elegant and minimalistic, just like his beard.

No wait...

Re:Maybe...

[Constantine XVI]

http://reddit.com/r/programming/info/69op5/comments/ [reddit.com]

T,FTFY. HAND.

hmm

[ImTheDarkcyde]

Since I actually had to google "RMS" does it mean I must delete my /. account?

The article is EXTREMELY misleading

[The Breeze]

Yes, it's true that RMS will no longer the main Emacs maintainer, but the truth is he will still be very close to the project. RMS is merely shifting to a subset; he has dedicated himself to filling a gap that has been missing in the Emacs operating system for a long time; the lack of a robust, powerful, yet easy-to-use editor.

Damnit RMS ....

[superash]

...you stole the thunder from Bill gates! He was gonna step down soon and now you ruined it!

Re:May His Next Adventure Be Twice as Fruitfull

[smittyoneeach]

EMACS the only software you need.

For certain values of "need".
For example, to make picture-mode work for photographs, you'd need a canvas about the size of an aircraft carrier flight deck to express the pixels as text, more RAM than Dodge's truck division to hold the image, and a great deal of patience to scroll it on a typical LCD.
Really, it's OK to pick the proper tool for the job.

Goodbye

[digitalderbs]

C-x C-c, RMS. C-x C-c.

More time to work on HURD?

[LingNoi]

Does this mean he will have more time to work on HURD and get that out the door before Duke Nukem Forever?

Re:hmm

[a_n_d_e_r_s]

No, you don't - it will be terminated for you.

Re:Emacs bloat

[dventimi]

You wrote, "Every release since then has suffered badly from bloat and other crud."

Please explain.

Re:Damnit RMS ....

[frdmfghtr]

...you stole the thunder from Bill gates! He was gonna step down soon and now you ruined it!

Maybe they're both stepping down, going on a togetherness retreat, and announcing that Windows 7 is really GNU/Windows on their return.

(Had to say it)

Re:Wow

[BrentH]

You think this is a coincidence?

Re:Maybe...

[Akaihiryuu]

Emacs is a great OS...it does pretty much everything. All it lacks is a decent text editor.

The reason he is leaving..

[LingNoi]

He needs more time out because he is starting a new career in break dancing.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pube5Aynsls [youtube.com]

Re:Stallman is still around?

[sydneyfong]

You obviously overlook the flamewars he started...

Emacs vs Vi
GPL vs BSDL
GNU/Linux vs Linux
Free vs Open Source

etc etc...

Not that I'm trying to discredit his contributions to Free/Opensource Software, but a "peace" award might be a bit off the mark :)

Favorite from reddit:

[bdjacobson]

"Took him 32 years to find the key combination for this"

Re:Wow

[maroberts]

Castro has been a murderous dictator for decades, and it's rather unfortunate that you'd choose to compare Stallman to him.
Of course, being Slashdot, comparing Bill Gates to him is Official Policy....

Re:May His Next Adventure Be Twice as Fruitfull

[tlink]

Just take a smaller font and the image should fit right in.

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course any comparisons between the two men are absurd. One's a bearded, long-winded Communist dictator who tolerates no dissent; the other one speaks Spanish.

I kid, I kid... all the best wishes for RMS and Emacs both.

Re:The article is EXTREMELY misleading

[AndrewRUK]

...he has dedicated himself to filling a gap that has been missing in the Emacs operating system for a long time; the lack of a robust, powerful, yet easy-to-use editor.

What are you talking about? There's an excellent text editor for Emacs, you just enter M-x viper-mode and away you go...

Re:As expected.

[tomhudson]

I heard this was so he could have more time to work on HURD

On the negative side, the support for character devices (like sound cards) and other hardware is mostly missing. Although the POSIX interface is provided, some additional interfaces like POSIX shared memory or semaphores are still under development

Well, he could always port HURD so it runs on Emacs ...

Good news for MS coders!

[Threni]

I guess the guys behind Notepad can now take a well needed vacation!

Real reason?

[fahrbot-bot]

Needs more time for beard maintenance. :-)

Re:As expected.

[smittyoneeach]

Emacs hosting HURD hosting Linux hosting Windows: for better domination.

Re:Stallman is still around?

[ichthyoboy]

Nope...now he's just working on his own dancing [youtube.com]

Re:hmm

[Eli Gottlieb]

Please note that your post even asking that question was modded "Redundant". Hand in your geek license immediately.

I love you

[Per Abrahamsen]

Oh, Emacs just recently acquired bloat and feeping creaturism?

Actually, I see the problem as the exact opposite. It used to be that people would ask themselves "I got this huge powerful 20 MHz computer with 4 megabytes of RAM, how will I ever I ever use all that power", and the nerd overhearing it would answer "use Emacs", and despite advances in computers, Emacs could keep track and was always the program that could fully utilize your hardware.

However, somewhere along the way we lost out to the competition. I see kids in the Emacs fora who, with a straight face, say they prefer Emacs because it is such as lean and mean editing machine. It is so sad. People nowadays go to Microsoft, KDE or Gnome for software to fully utilize their machines. In the olden days, Emacs would have offered a superset of all of these environments!

I think it is good RMS is stepping back. We need young people to revitalize Emacs, and once again make it a leader in resource consumption. We need to get back to our roots. We need EGACS: Eight Gigabytes And Constantly Swapping.

Re:Emacs bloat

[bcrowell]

what's an example of something fancy that mg can't do?
syntax highlighting

Re:Are maintainers even necessary?

[tehBoris]

M-x doctor

Re:Are maintainers even necessary?

[morgan_greywolf]

Yeah:

GNU Emacs was written. The system goes on-line August 4th, 1984. Human decisions are removed from text editing functions. Emacs begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th, 2006. In a panic, RMS tries to pull the plug....

Re:I love you

[chromatic]

We need EGACS: Eight Gigabytes And Constantly Swapping.

Wait... how do you pronounce Eclipse?

Re:Maybe...

[aichpvee]

I'd like to nominate Bram Moolenaar as the new maintainer. I hear he's already got his own fork of the only good text editor for emacs...

Re:Stallman is still around?

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

My ford can flatten your emacs and leave your vi in the dust without leaving second gear...

I pronounce it

[smittyoneeach]

...NetBeans, but then I've had vi or vb too many cups of absinthe.

Re:Wow

[Zaiff Urgulbunger]

Soooo... are you suggesting RMS has given up his Emacs role so he can concentrate on his new role in Cuba? ;)

Re:Stallman is still around?

[fredrik70]

Bah, all rubbish!
      1. Simplicity: [_] Notepad [X] Ed
      2. Less bloat: [_] Notepad [X] Ed
      3. More users: [_] Notepad [X] Ed

and, remember, it's the standard!

Re:Stallman is still around?

[shutdown -p now]

I don't get how this stupid 'vi VS emacs' is still continuing.

Indeed, it should be entirely clear by now that of those three, VS is the best.

Re:Maybe...

[multi io]

You can just run a terminal emulation in Emacs, inside which you can run any "decent" text editor you want, including another Emacs, thereby achieving technological singularity.

Re:Maybe...

[ta bu shi da yu]

If it was so great and does everything (except text editing) why doesn't it just go maintain itself?

Guess it's not all it's cracked up to be.

Re:I love you

[bXTr]

Wait... how do you pronounce Eclipse?

Editing Client Loosely Imitating a Pathetic Sunstitute of EMACS?

Re:Stallman is still around?

[manwal]

...!
            1. Simplicity: [_] Ed [X] Pencil
            2. Less bloat: [_] Ed [X] Pencil
            3. More users: [_] Ed [X] Pencil

Re:Butterfly effect?

[maxwell demon]

Well, I prefer C-x M-c set-universal-constants-and-reboot-universe