Re: ncurses 4.1

>>>>> "RMS" == Richard Stallman <rms_at_gnu.ai.mit.edu> writes:

RMS> I am interested in hearing from the views of additional people
RMS> other than ESR and Dickey as to

RMS> * Whether Dickey is doing a good job, for the community, in
RMS> maintaining his version of ncurses.

With the few problems I've encountered with ncurses, Thomas Dickey has
responded in minutes with fixes or suggestions.

RMS> * Whether ESR has released substantial changes to ncurses
RMS> recently (since Dickey began maintaining a version of it).

RMS> * Whether Dickey has been willing to accept changes when ESR
RMS> writes them.

The name `Eric' occurs 42 times in the NEWS file.
This says to me the answer is yes on both counts.

RMS> * Whether you think Dickey has done anything wrong or unfair.

If Dickey is not being honest about who contributes what (there are
many attributions in the NEWS file, including the names "Eric" and
"Zeyd"), he is being mighty subtle about it.

Assuming Dickey is being honest, essentially what he is `guility' of is
disregard for the the seniority of now-secondary contributors. Since
Juergen Pfeifer's name occurs 40 times in the NEWS file (and for
goodness sake, several of his items are *modules*, e.g. forms library,
menu code), relatively speaking, I don't see a reason to be suspicious
about the fact Juergen Pfeifer being listed as a maintainer (Eric and Zeyd are
still both listed as authors).

With The Truth, good name-recognition, years of experience, and the
help of another sympathetic and experienced ncurses developer, one
would think Eric Raymond could easily assert control of the ncurses
project....
Received on Mon Jun 02 1997 - 03:15:41 EDT