Re: [gNewSense-users] Emacs PFV Mode Update

[Bake Timmons]

> Well done on your recent contributions to the PFV work.  Thanks from
> all for that.
>
> I don't use Emacs (yet), do you think that it is possible to write a
> guide to your method, that people like me will understand?

Thank you.

I will try to make it easier and document when I can.  The top priority
ATM is to make it easier to edit wiki pages that already have data. (*)

For new pages, the tool has been *great*.  Even with a rather clumsy
keyboard technique, I completed over a dozen package sections in under a
half hour, from empty pages to thorough descriptions.  Granted, these
sections were all trivially GPLv2+, but tediosity was vastly reduced and
there is much room for improvement.

Indeed, considering the recent discussion about the *limitations* of
scripting in the PFV process, *interfaces* to tools that require
(costly) *human* intervention become all the more relevent, hence the
value in something like an Emacs mode.

BTW, the only limitations of scripting that have been acknowledged
involve *guessing* the licenses of files.  The *organization* of our
work has still not been adequately discussed.  E.g., why do we not use a
simple database such as a sqlite file?  Not only would it facilitate
some kinds of scripting, it might make maintenance easier.  Most of all,
it could have much greater *utility* and perhaps attract more people to
gNewSense.  In other words, we could benefit from a database-backed web
site, and it does not have to be complicated.  Perhaps I am missing
something here--what are we lacking to do this?

Thanks again.


(*): A fix to this and other problems in PFV mode is on the way, but my
network connection has been limited lately.  I will try hard to upload
it today and am looking for hosting for this project in order to
unburden this list.