GCC association with the FSF

[Alexandre Oliva]

On Apr 12, 2021, Adhemerval Zanella <adhemerval.zanella@linaro.org> wrote:

> No, you are insinuating that the glibc community both as maintainer
> and contributors acted in a hateful way regarding the 'joke'
> removal. Sorry, but this is not true;

Easy to say for someone who hasn't been the target of hate, but it's
just that it was there right then, it's *remains* there.  Not exclusive
among glibc maintainers, and certainly not unanimous among them, but
there.  I may even have earned it myself.  But the one that Richard got
over incorrect assumptions that he commanded the reversal, that's just
another false piece of evidence often used to support the hate campaign.

> The main idea, which I was vocal about and shared with some glibc
> developers and maintainers, was that the "joke" has no place in a
> technical manual.

I understand there is consensus about that now, but back then there were
too many unsettled policy issues to make that call consensually among
all relevant parties.

The main disagreement was not over the issue proper, though.  It was
about procedure, and then it was about whose opinions as much as
counted.


It was a really trivial issue, but sufficiently hot-button and
triggering enough underlying issues that it got to be exploited
politically in several ugly ways.

It can't really be understood without looking into broader contexts that
had long been mounting, and that again quite explicit in this list too.


But I hope we can all agree that it was a horrible mess.

-- 
Alexandre Oliva, happy hacker  https://FSFLA.org/blogs/lxo/
   Free Software Activist         GNU Toolchain Engineer
        Vim, Vi, Voltei pro Emacs -- GNUlius Caesar