Re: Gnuserv

[Martin Schwenke]

>>>>> "RMS" == Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:

    RMS>     I maintain a package containing the current XEmacs
    RMS>     gnuserv stuff that works on GNU Emacs.  It is available
    RMS>     via:

    RMS>       http://meltin.net/hacks/emacs/

    RMS> We could install this version in Emacs if we can get legal
    RMS> papers for it.  Do you have a full list of the contributors?
    RMS> If you send that to me, I can check if we have everyone.

    RMS> We can do without papers for people who made only small
    RMS> contributions, up to 15 lines of change.

gnuserv.el says:

;; Version: 3.12
;; Author: Andy Norman (address@hidden), originally based on server.el
;;         Hrvoje Niksic <address@hidden>
;; Maintainer: Jan Vroonhof <address@hidden>,
;;             Hrvoje Niksic <address@hidden>

We had a similar conversation abbout 2 years ago.  I made some attempt
to find out if people would be willing to sign papers.  The only
record I have is of a reply from Andy Norman where he said that he
signed papers for gnuserv in 1989 and:

  gnuserv has been hacked on by so many folks over the years, who
  knows.  I thought there was an effort to get the papers for this
  done about 5 years or so back, but it was so long ago that I've
  actually forgotten. ;-)

  There is a different version of gnuserv which is shipped with
  XEmacs.. that was substantially re-written by one of the XEmacs
  contributors.

  There is also a different version of gnuserv shipped with NT Emacs,
  which uses mailslots rather than tcp/ip.

I'd separate the effort into going after papers for the C and lisp
parts separately.

I don't think the C part has changed that much over the years.  At one
stage I was planning to completely rewrite this part.  Given my
progress so far, you would probably be waiting a while for this...
:-( However, I'll try to do a comparison between the 2.0beta and
2.1alpha versions that you probably have papers for and the current
version in XEmacs.  I'll get back to you with the results of this, but
I have to find copies of the old versions, since I don't seem to have
them anymore...

For the lisp part I'd contact Hrvoje Niksic.  I seem to recall sending
him a message a couple of years ago and not getting a reply.  However,
the fact that I don't have any trace of this means that I'm probably
hallucinating.  Do you want me to contact him?

Interestingly, gnuserv.el bears only this copyright message:

;; Copyright (C) 1989-1997 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

so you maybe already have papers from him.

Do you want me to chase this up with address@hidden and Hrvoje Niksic
or do you want to do it?

peace & happiness,
martin