Re: The Jolly Writer

----- Kristof Đymek ([email protected])
Engineer General - Chilkat Design Build - Naiad Informatics - Gnu Project

Society has become too quick to pass judgement and declare someone
Persona Non-Grata, the most extreme form of censure a country can
bestow.

In a new era of destructive authoritarianism, I support Richard
Stallman.  Times of great crisis are also times of great
opportunity.  I call upon you to make this struggle yours as well !

https://www.gnu.org     https://www.fsf.org/


> Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2025 at 10:22 AM
> From: "Jay Belanger" <[email protected]>
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [texmacs-users] The Jolly Writer>
> 
> >For ages its author did not want to release a free version.
> 
> Right.  But now he has released a cost-free version; it
> would be nice to be able to get a bound version.

Here we go again - the old tale of manuals of free software locked behind 
restrictions.  They get excluded from the Free World, the very community 
built on sharing, improving, and learning together.

It’s not the first time this has happened, and it’s a real loss for everyone. 
Time and time again, authors writing manuals for free software, only to 
shackle it with restrictions that people can't use it properly.  It's like 
building a bridge and then telling people they can't cross it.
 
> > Also Texmacs has been highly misleading because it has no
> > relation to either Tex or Emacs.
> 
> It typesets like TeX, it is configurable like Emacs.   But
> regardless, the name reflects the inspiration and isn't
> supposed to indicate what it is.  It takes a lot of work
> to consider it to be misleading, and if you work hard
> enough many names are misleading; Firefox has
> neither fire nor is it a fox, for example, and as far as I
> know isn't inspired by either.

There is always some chestnut who likes to to point to Firefox.  Firefox’s 
name is metaphorical.  With Texmacs, the name suggests a direct lineage or 
compatibility that just isn't there. It's not just a quirky brand name.

It's a genuine usability problem.