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Subject: XEmacs futures (was Re: [19.15-b6] success)
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From: Steven L Baur <steve@miranova.com>
In-Reply-To: Mark Borges's message of 30 Dec 1996 10:35:15 -0700
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Date: 30 Dec 1996 18:54:44 -0800
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X-Mailer: Red Gnus v0.72/XEmacs 19.15

>>>>> "mb" == Mark Borges <mdb@cdc.noaa.gov> writes:

mb> Config details below.

mb> BTW, what version (19.15 or 20.0) needs the most testing right now?

19.15.  I'm going to be announcing a beta schedule up to 20.0 release
date after the first of the year and most everyone is back from
vacation.

The short of it is, I would like to release 19.15 somewhere around the
15th of January.  I hope we don't need more than two or three more
19.15 betas to get there.  I have no plans to make subsequent patch
releases to 19.15.  If it is clear that updating is necessary (we'll
know within a week or so after release), I'll reopen that source tree,
make a few betas and release a 19.16, but not before ...

I would like 20.0 to go out shortly after 19.15, perhaps by mid
February.  Earlier if there are no easy to reproduce crashes.  Chuck
planned on making the intervals between initial v20 releases shorter
than is usual for XEmacs releases, and I see no reason to deviate from
that.  20.0 is almost as frozen as 19.15 is right now.  I want to
limit further changes to necessary package upgrades, bug fixes, and
performance improvements (if we get any).  To quote Chuck, ``this
freeze will probably work as well as XEmacs freezes have worked in the
past.''

After 20.0, things will opened up again briefly.  The first things I
want added will be Joel's stuff, Gnus 5.4, and synch-ups with whatever
version of Emacs is current then.

For the future, the kinds of features I personally am most interested
in are:
1.  All things GUI.  (Drag & Drop within XEmacs in Lisp, etc.)

2.  Better word processing support  (I would really like to cut into
    MS W*rd's market share)

3.  Better support for images (actually just finish off what we've
    started)

Non-feature issues are:
1.  Documentation

2.  Performance

3.  Code Stability

4.  Portability to other system types

We've gotten a deservedly bad rep. on all of those items.

Administratively, I would like to see:
1.  XEmacs get a sponsor

2.  A resolution one way or the other on the ongoing war with RMS &
    Emacs (I'll be posting more about this after the beginning of the
    year)

3.  A reorganization in how development is handled.  I am particularly
    displeased at how little support Martin and I can provide for
    systems we don't have access to.  I am interested in finding
    volunteer representatives for each major system type we support to
    become primary focal points for those architectures.  If the load
    is balanced enough, this need not imply enormous time commitments.

I'd like to see debate and comments on any of the above.  Perhaps it's
time we revived xemacs-beta-discuss?

mb> I've built both, but I have quite a few byte-compiled files and
mb> switching between the two gives, e.g.,

mb>     `vmrc.el' was compiled for Emacs 20

Packages like Red Gnus works with both versions if you bytecompile
with 19.14 or 19.15.  I suggest unless you specifically need mule
support, you bytecompile your site-lisp stuffs with 19.14 or 19.15.

mb> I'll also try recompiling 19.15-b6 with this CFLAG to see if the grep
mb> process returns
mb>    BROKEN_SIGCHLD.  (Add a -DBROKEN_SIGCHLD to cflags, or put it in your

O.K.

mb> Configured for `sparc-sun-solaris2.5'.

Thanks for the report.
-- 
steve@miranova.com baur
Unsolicited commercial e-mail will be billed at $250/message.
"That Bill Clinton.  He probably doesn't know how to log on to the
Internet."  -- Rush Limbaugh, noted Computer Expert

