On Sun, Apr 11, 2021 at 12:30:41AM +0200, Gerald Pfeifer wrote: There are a number of people arguing here who have contributed little to nothing to GCC, whose names even did not trigger memories - unlike David M. or Jonathan, for example, or Nathan or Alexandre.
For myself, I have been a long term user/contributor to GCC albiet hardly in a major role. I don't think I've ever posted to this list until a few days ago, when all of a sudden these messages started popping up in my inbox. So either I subscribed to this list many years ago and it has been dormant until recently or someone subscribed me just recently. When it comes to deciding the direction of a project like GCC - technical and otherwise - in my mind it primarily should be those actually involved and contributing. I disagree. The principle by which high level decisions in all GNU projects have always been made is how it best helps the GNU system as a whole. Contributors are exactly that. They offer *contributions* - the very meaning of the word implies there is no expectation of anything in return. Obviously I hope all contributors *do* get some satisfaction and maybe even some tangible benefit. But contributions are not to be seen as a means to gain control of the project at a high level. J'