GNU bug report logs - #76120
[PATCH] Expose the native sharing dialog (macOS)

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Message #214 received at 76120 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Po Lu <luangruo <at> yahoo.com>
Cc: bjorn.bidar <at> thaodan.de, alvaro <at> xenodium.com, stefankangas <at> gmail.com,
 76120 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#76120: [PATCH] Expose the native sharing dialog (macOS)
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2025 11:00:01 +0200

> From: Po Lu <luangruo <at> yahoo.com>
> Cc: bjorn.bidar <at> thaodan.de,  76120 <at> debbugs.gnu.org,  alvaro <at> xenodium.com,
>   stefankangas <at> gmail.com
> Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2025 16:12:54 +0800
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> writes:
> 
> But we're not judging features by intimate details, and we won't have to
> remove the MS-Windows or DJGPP ports, because they create no incentive
> for users to migrate to MS-Windows or MS-DOS, in contrast to user-facing
> amenities provided by the operating system's GUI.

That's your opinion, and you are entitled to it.  But it doesn't mean
it is universally true: how can we know what does and doesn't give
users incentives?

I'm having hard time to believe that seeing "Share" is such an
incentive.

> (In fact I've lately
> discovered that it is FreeDOS where the Emacs port is most useful, and
> that operating system is 100% Free Software.)

Try to count how many users of DJGPP Emacs actually do that on
FreeDOS.

> We decide whether to
> reject features by the probability that they will induce users to
> another, proprietary, operating system.  The fact that Emacs's GUI
> backend executes in threads created by proprietary C runtime alone is
> clearly not applicable to this criterion, but GUI file sharing
> capabilities are.  The rather when they amount to an endorsement of a
> proprietary file sharing service.

You are being subjective here because you want to make a point.

> > Emacs's architecture and expectations from the underlying platform are
> > so Posix-centric that emulating them without resorting to proprietary
> > system-specific mechanisms is practically impossible.  Anyone who
> > demands us to avoid such interfaces and mechanisms basically tells us
> > to stop supporting those systems in a way that makes Emacs useful and
> > its features reasonably portable.
> 
> Mac OS is a POSIX system, just as much as GNU/Linux, if not more.

Not in its GUI system.

> We are speaking of user-visible productivity features provided by
> the GUI, not internal porting details, and I find it difficult to
> accept that a one-click interface to "cloud" file storage and to the
> iPhone Simulator is fundamental to Emacs's architecture or way of
> life, as it were.

It is neither fundamental nor an incentive to migrate.

So let's drop this futile argument, okay?  We have gobs of real work
on our hands.

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