Re: Could a few influential GNOME develoers join gnu-prog-discuss gnu org?

[Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>]

    mention that this particular behaviour is specified:
    http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/xdg-user-dirs

They can recommend, but they cannot "specify" anything for us.  In the
GNU Project we pay attention to standards, and usually we follow them,
but not automatically or necessarily.  For instance, GNU df and du
give sizes in k by default, not in 512-byte blocks as POSIX
"specifies".  Likewise, GCC "violates" the ISO C spec if you don't use
--pedantic.

The standards made by POSIX, ISO and freedesktop.org are suggestions.
They carry some weight because users typically appreciate
compatibility with standards.  But that's not the only thing users
appreciate, so a standard is not a command for us to obey.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
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USA
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