Re: recent changes to org files

[David Kastrup]

Carsten Dominik <address@hidden> writes:

> I don't have the time to spend my days on emacs-devel, my energy
> goes into making org-mode as good as I can.  The version of org-mode
> that is tested the most is the one I distribute, and the most likely
> to not have any bugs.

That assumes that more people use the org-mode from your web site than
the org mode in Emacs, since using org-mode is a sort of testing.

If that is the case, there is little point in distributing org-mode as
part of Emacs.

But I really doubt it.

> That is the one I am checking into. Emacs.  When I see changes made
> to org-mode in Emacs I am incorporating them into my master copy if
> they make sense, and only then.
>
> If I would follow Stefan' advice and only check in diffs, the `next-
> line' code would be broken now.

If indeed this would be the case (and I don't see that right now), it
would be broken in a documented and isolatable way, and for a reason.
This reason remains to exist.  Overwriting the change without comment
or documentation means that the same reason will possibly result in
the same change being made later on.

If some code is in violation of the Emacs development guidelines, the
reason should be documented so that people _know_ about it and leave
it alone.  Silently reverting the change in a manner that looks like
an accident will not achieve this.

> I do agree, I am not battling, I am doing as good as I can and I I
> sometimes slip.  But if I am the maintainer of org-mode in Emacs,
> than I and no one else decides what goes into the mode and what not.
> If people disagree, and I will quit maintaining this mode inside
> Emacs.

Basically you are asking that nothing, including bug fixes, may be
committed to org-mode except by yourself.  Then there is no point in
having org-mode inside of Emacs' CVS.

Being a maintainer does not mean that nobody else may do work on the
code.  It means that people in general respect you having the last
word.  But it is the last, not the only word.

-- 
David Kastrup