Subject: bug#76120: [PATCH] Expose the native sharing dialog (macOS)

From: Po Lu <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2025 09:07:49 +0800

Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]> writes:

>> From: Björn Bidar <[email-masked]>
>> Cc: Stefan Kangas <[email-masked]>,  [email-masked],  Eli
>>  Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
>> Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:14:22 +0200
>> 
>> Since xdg-open isn't the same as "sharing" doesn't that only circumvent
>> the policy to not add functionality that is only supported on non-free
>> platforms?
>
> After all the discussions we had about the meaning of "sharing" in
> this case, what exactly makes you say xdg-open etc. are not equivalent
> to this "sharing"? just the fact that xdg-open doesn't have an option
> called literally "share", or something else?
>
> IOW, would you please describe the general functionality that the
> proposed "sharing" offers and xdg-open doesn't?

I won't object to implementing Bluetooth "sharing", since a file can
easily be sent through e.g. blueman-sendto, but I will object to the
dialog proposed by the OP.  Contrasting the facilities exposed by this
dialog with their GNU/Linux equivalents is beside the point of our
policy against features which place proprietary systems at an advantage,
because our object in doing so is to prevent the creation of any
material incentive in Emacs that might motivate users to install Mac OS,
not simply to guarantee that Emacs on Mac OS holds no advantage in raw
capabilities over Emacs on free systems.  I say this dialog is certainly
such an incentive, as attested by the existence of this patch rather
than a patch adding aliases from xdg-open and blueman to AppleScript
workalikes.  You and I may not be vain enough for such features to
influence our preferences as regards operating systems, but you cannot
deny that people exist whom they do influence.

What is more, half of the dialog is devoted to Apple's proprietary file
sharing protocol, AirDrop.  Any person can see the folly in providing a
direct interface to a proprietary file sharing system in Emacs, never
mind such a file sharing system as is only available on one brand of
computer.  And it breaks the GNUstep build, though that is the least of
our concerns.

Just my two cents.