Re: contributing to Emacs

[Dr. Arne Babenhauserheide]

Konstantin Kharlamov <hi-angel@yandex.ru> writes:

> I am assuming that if a person doesn't know how to contribute to Emacs, they
> will query a search engine about that. And search engine would send them to 
> this
> page
> https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Sending-Patches.html

When I looked up instructions (instead of just using M-x report bug (and
completing on report-emacs-bug with amx), I used the tried and true
approach to look for a "contributing" link on the project-website.

It didn’t work.

I think that’s a bug in the website and may be part of the explanation
why additional ports did not bring many additional developers.
(though the Emacs website is already much, much better than it was two
decades ago)

- today: 
https://web.archive.org/web/20230602202220/http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
- one decade ago: 
https://web.archive.org/web/20130704144538/http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
- two decades ago: 
https://web.archive.org/web/20030205055456/http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/

Though for contributors, there’s actually one thing that got worse:
searching on the website for "contribut" turned up the CONTRIBUTING file
before the current design and now doesn’t turn up a result.

Two decades ago:

>  To contact the maintainers of Emacs, either to report a bug or to
>  contribute fixes or improvements, send mail to
>  <bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>.

One decade ago:

> To report bugs, or to contribute fixes and improvements, use the
> built-in Emacs bug reporter (M-x report-emacs-bug) or send email to
> bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org. You can browse our bug database at
> debbugs.gnu.org. For more information on contributing, see the
> CONTRIBUTE file (also distributed with Emacs).

Now:

(you have to click on "Documentation & Support" or on "Further
information" to find something about contributing or development).

I think that’s a regression that needs fixing.

Best wishes,
Arne
-- 
Unpolitisch sein
heißt politisch sein,
ohne es zu merken.
draketo.de

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