Re: In support of Jonas Bernoulli's Magit

[Ken Manheimer]

On Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 12:02 PM, Richard Stallman <address@hidden> wrote:

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  > > We have a problem in Emacs: it doesn't contain a good interface to
  > > git.

  > I get on just fine with Emacs VC and git. It enables me to do just what
  > I did with other VCS in Emacs, and I appreciate the uniformity of
  > interface. Obviously, many people prefer a more featureful interface to
  > git's many bells and whistles, and that's fine. But IMO your statement
  > is an exaggeration.

I'm not stating a personal opinion about VC or Magit.  (I don't have
one.)  I'm citing what other people generally say on this list.

When people ask here what they should do to use git with Emacs, the
usual answer posted is "use Magit".  Thus the problem: that the usual
way people recommend to use Emacs with Git is via a package we have
been unable to include in Emacs.

In following this conversation, I'm getting the distinct feeling that Magit constitutes an interesting and important case, which might warrant improving the copyright assignment mechanisms.

On one hand, the magnitude of the Magit project, together with the state of the GNU copyright assignment mechanisms, present a formidable obstacle to satisfying the copyright assignment requirement.

On the other hand, as many voices are suggesting, the magnitude of the benefits Magit offers for developers to do their work simply cannot be disregarded or bypassed. Kaushal Modi's account of ways Magit makes some git stuff more approachable than git, itself, or other alternatives. My own experience is similar. This is no small thing, because in some ways git provides a similar, unbeatable advantage for source code management, compared to alternatives. So for some developers (including me), Magit is not just a good option for doing my job, it is irreplaceable.

One conclusion I'm trying to suggest, from all this, is that Magit warrants extra effort to solve the copyright assignment problem. Phillip Lords account of his effort to bring Dash into conformance suggests what seem like crucial prospective improvements to the copyright assignment machinery. However, they risk not getting enough attention because they involve improving legally sensitive bureaucratic processes, which requires a lot of persistence. I hope that effort is invested - Magit really is that valuable.

Ken

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Dr Richard Stallman
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