Re: [bootstrappable] Re: Can Guile be bootstrapped from source without psyntax-pp.scm?

[Michael Schierl]

Hello Ludo’,


Am 15.03.2021 um 18:09 schrieb Ludovic Courtès:
> Woow, this is great news!  I think it would be great towards importing
> it in Guile proper.
>
> To do that, I think we should first get Andy’s opinion on the approach.

I don't think upstream is very interested in having psyntax-pp.scm
bootstrappable. In Guile 3.0.3 they broke even the `make
ice-9/psyntax-pp.scm.gen` target, and did not repair it even in Guile
3.0.5, that's why I used 3.0.2 for the bootstrap. But I included a patch
to repair it in 3.0.5 in case you really want to bootstrap that version
(psyntax-pp.scm has not changed there). OTOH, from the git log it seems
like psyntax is currently being overhauled for the next release, so
probably my code would need some updates for the next version.

Also, in the last 15 years I avoided directly contributing to "GNU
projects" (with FSF as copyright holder in the license headers), reasons
below. But if anyone else takes my code and upstreams it, I won't object.

Regardless, even when not part of Guile, I believe this code is very
useful for both the live-bootstrap project and Guix to get their Guile
bootstrapped. And even if nobody ever updates it for 3.0.6+, you can
always bootstrap the later versions from an earlier Guile. And maybe a
variation of it lands in GNU Mes, too.


<rant>

And now for the reasons. It happened first to me 17 years ago, what
others would have called an honor, a private email from RMS himself if I
would consider upstreaming some of my code into GNU Emacs. I answered to
feel free to take it, since it is GPLv3+ (or was it GPLv2+ at that
point? not sure) anyway, and he replied that it is not that easy since
first they need a to have me sign "copyright assignment papers" and
asked for a postal address to send them. I was able to find an old
version of that assignment online and it included some clauses I was
unwilling to sign, so I asked if FSF could send me an electronic version
first before I give them my postal address so they can snail mail me the
dead-tree version, just to avoid work on their side assuming that I may
not be willing to sign that anyway. As FSF was unable/unwilling to do
so, it all stopped, until, years later somebody asked me to contribute
some of my code to ELPA. I guess I can spare you the details, they would
bore you.

I'm not at all against contracts, the http://developercertificate.org/
(which I agreed to before contributing a 2-line bugfix to the Linux
kernel) has recently got some traction, and also I've signed Google's
Contributor License Agreement. However, I would not sign Oracle's
Contributor License Agremment (the last version of it that I checked),
not because of the company but because of its contents.

</rant>


Regards,


Michael