Re: New Package for NonGNU-ELPA: clojure-ts-mode

[Lynn Winebarger]

On Sun, Aug 27, 2023 at 1:39 PM Bozhidar Batsov <bozhidar@batsov.dev> wrote:
> I believe this conversation has drifted a lot from the original topic 
> (clojure-ts-mode). I have to say I'm a bit frustrated that every time someone 
> wants to submit something to NonGNU ELPA there's some push to either submit 
> to GNU ELPA or core instead. I've been maintaining almost all of the Clojure 
> dev tooling for Emacs for over a decade, so I do believe that by now I know 
> what I'm doing and how I want to do things. I've said a million times by now 
> that I don't want contributors to have to deal with copyright agreements and 
> with quirks/oddities in the Emacs development process. I believe that the 
> maintainers who actually work on something should be allowed to decide how 
> their projects get developed.
>

If it wasn't for the copyright assignment requirement, there wouldn't
be a real issue blocking the incorporation of clojure-mode into core
emacs.  A core emacs developer could just maintain a (minor) fork of
the packages in emacs without any further discussion under the GPL.
No one involved in the primary development effort necessarily has to
be involved with the Emacs development process.

How much of your concern with obtaining copyright assignments is the
developer's willingness to give their own signature, and how much is
around the hassle of needing to involve their employer, even when
their contributions are not at all part of their employment?  I'd like
to get a sense of how much overreaching employment agreements are
impacting people's willingness or ability to contribute directly to
GNU software projects.   Otherwise, given rms is pushing for a
clojure-mode in core emacs, there would probably be volunteers who
could pursue getting the required copyright assignment paperwork from
the individual contributors.

Thanks,
Lynn