gnustandards standards.texi

[Richard M. Stallman]

CVSROOT:        /sources/gnustandards
Module name:    gnustandards
Changes by:     Richard M. Stallman <rms>       21/08/17 09:19:55

Modified files:
        .              : standards.texi 

Log message:
        (System Portability): Clarify the point about not letting non-GNU
        platforms take priority over GNU.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/gnustandards/standards.texi?cvsroot=gnustandards&r1=1.270&r2=1.271

Patches:
Index: standards.texi
===================================================================
RCS file: /sources/gnustandards/gnustandards/standards.texi,v
retrieving revision 1.270
retrieving revision 1.271
diff -u -b -r1.270 -r1.271
--- standards.texi      1 Jul 2021 14:17:37 -0000       1.270
+++ standards.texi      17 Aug 2021 13:19:55 -0000      1.271
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 @setfilename standards.info
 @settitle GNU Coding Standards
 @c This date is automagically updated when you save this file:
-@set lastupdate July 1, 2021
+@set lastupdate August 17, 2021
 @c %**end of header
 
 @dircategory GNU organization
@@ -2935,18 +2935,33 @@
 versions.  For a GNU program, this kind of portability is desirable, but
 not paramount.
 
-The primary purpose of GNU software is to run on top of the GNU kernel,
-compiled with the GNU C compiler, on various types of CPU@.  So the
-kinds of portability that are absolutely necessary are quite limited.
-But it is important to support Linux-based GNU systems, since they
-are the form of GNU that is popular.
-
-Beyond that, it is good to support the other free operating systems
-(*BSD), and it is nice to support other Unix-like systems if you want
-to.  Supporting a variety of Unix-like systems is desirable, although
-not paramount.  It is usually not too hard, so you may as well do it.
-But you don't have to consider it an obligation, if it does turn out to
-be hard.
+The primary purpose of GNU software is to run as part of the GNU
+operating system, compiled with GNU compilers, on various types of
+hardware.  So the kinds of portability that are absolutely necessary
+are quite limited.  It is important to support Linux-based GNU
+systems, since they are the form of GNU that people mainly use.
+
+Making a GNU program operate on operating systems other than the GNU
+system is not part of the core goal of developing a GNU package.  You
+don't ever have to do that.  However, users will ask you to do that,
+and cooperating with those requests is useful---as long as you don't
+let it dominate the project or impede the primary goal.
+
+It is good to support the other free or nearly free operating systems
+(for instance, *BSD).  Supporting a variety of Unix-like systems is
+desirable, although not paramount.  It is usually not too hard, so you
+may as well do it.  But you don't have to consider it an obligation,
+if it does turn out to be hard.
+
+For the most part it is good to port the program to more platforms,
+but you should not let take up so much of your time that it hinders
+you from improving the program in more central ways.  If it starts to
+do that, please tell users that you don't want to spend any more
+time on this---someone else must write that code, debug it, document
+it, etc., and then you can install it.
+
+You can reject porting patches for technical reasons too, as with any
+other patch that users submit.  It is up to you.
 
 @pindex autoconf
 The easiest way to achieve portability to most Unix-like systems is to