Published 2024-10-21
tag(s): #programming #emacs
This weekend, a patch I submitted to Emacs to fix a small problem with EWW was
merged.[1]
I have a lot of emotions on this.
I makes me incredibly happy to have contributed back to core, even if this is far from being a
major feature.
I have been using Emacs daily since 2017, for everything at work (programming, taking notes,
meeting alerts) and home (email, calendar, taking more notes, and more programming).
Having improved something in it feels like expressing my gratitude by giving back, however
small my contribution is.
The copyright assignment process took longer than I expected. That said, it was really simple!
So if you have some patience, it isn't bad at all.
As for the development process, I was eager to use an email-based flow in the wild for some
time now[2]. It was as seamless as I expected, the only reason it took
longer is because my initial submission was in a completely different direction than the patch
finally merged.
Through all the review steps and conversation, I also got a glimpse at how a project that's
been ongoing for almost 40 years is still relevant and functional: even changes in small
features are seriously considered and discussed.
I have another patch "in progress", plus a very small fix for a reported bug. And a will to tackle some more problems.
Serendipitously, this weekend someone shared work-in-progress for an ical library. I worked
with icalendar.el when
building cdsync, and found a few cases
that weren't handled yet. I have also noted a few calendar-related bug reports to look at
later, so contributing to this new library could be a great experience.
Whatever that nebulous tag means.
I used to think, in my younger years, that the open source/free software
movement[3] was just a bunch of crazy people working on strange
projects.
Then over the years I understood things better, but still though people contributing to these
projects were somehow "special and gifted" developers, the same ones that published packages
and shared tools. I was happy to use their code, but didn't see myself as one of them.
But then I did publish my own packages and tools. Eventually I got a few bug reports from
other people (another milestone).
At some point I looked back and realized I was "one of them": I valued and respected way more those projects that made their source available, and accepted contributions in an open development process.
Contributing to Emacs core is something I've wanted to do for a while now, like I said above,
it felt like a tangible way to give back to a community that gave me an awful lot.
On a more esoteric/emotional plane, it also felt like the last step in my ongoing journey of
changing how I see the relationship between technology and society. And the last step in the
process to stop seeing myself like an outsider. I now took an active part of the Free Software
movement by contributing in one way I can: with code.
At the end of the day, it is just a patch. But why not allow myself to put some emotional
weight to it?
So yes, I am an open source contributor :)