Dropping support for all non-free tools (was: Add clang++ to AC_PROG_CXX)

[Jeffrey Walton]

On Thu, Mar 31, 2016 at 1:22 PM, Ruben Safir <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 31, 2016 at 07:13:18PM +0200, Václav Haisman wrote:
>> On 31.3.2016 18:46, Ruben Safir wrote:
>> > On 03/31/2016 12:31 PM, Jeffrey Walton wrote:
>> >> viable compiler
>> >
>> > It will be viable when they release it under the GPL3.
>>
>> In that case, I am waiting for you to present and get through patches
>> that remove aCC, cl.exe, FCC, KCC, RCC, xlC_r, and xlC as well as clang
>> from the code.
>>
>
> That is irrelevant to the issue being address.  Just because something stupid
> was done in the past doesn't mean that it should be stupidly be done in the
> present.

That sword cuts both ways....

The FSF has worthy goals, like ensuring user freedoms. There's a
reason the principals don't dominate the landscape. It seems to
indicate a problem with the approach or execution.

What purpose does it serve to alienate a majority of the users from
whom you need support to achieve your goals? That seems like it will
take a bad situation (lack of overwhelming support for FSF ideals) and
make it worse (aggravate more developers and users, which nets you
less support).

Jeff