I'm just wondering how many folks on this list consider themselves hackers, coders, code slingers, programmers, or the like. I can't make great claims to being more than an initiate hacker. Part of the reason I am asking this is because I've been doing some reading about Xemacs. In the historical introduction to the _Xemacs Internals Manual_, the genesis of Xemacs is traced back to the 1950s at MIT. The names Richard Stallman, James Gosling, Marc Andreessen, and Jamie Zawinski are all mentioned as contributors to the evolution of (X)emacs. Emacs is extremely powerful. It is described as a Lisp interpreter masquerading as an editor. Xemacs is capable of browsing the web, - kind of clunky - auto-indenting and auto-highlighting code in many different languages, reading and generating email and news messages, executing Lisp programs, validating SGML compliant documents with DTDs, and lots, lots more. Unfortunately it is not accessible for use by mere mortals. I'm just wondering if there are others on this list who have gone down the path into (X)emacs. I'm also wondering how many on this list actually hack open source code. There is a need for coders in many parts of the open source community. Here's a list of places I believe contributions are needed, www.mozilla.org - the html editor - browser interface to the OS platform. e.g., saving files with an interface - that allows one to set bookmarks, remember the download file name when changing directories, etc. - web publishing through HTML - Lots more Drivers for hardware - printers - sound cards Xemacs - www.xemacs.org - HUMAN - or is that humane - interface - similar to nedit Nedit - www.nedit.org - more power - auto-indent, outlining, sgml, etc. - similar to (X)emacs KDE - www.kde.org - basically, help fill in the obvious uncompleted parts of the core functionality. - Koolo and CO seem to know where they are going Linux - documentation - standardization - www.linuxbase.org - improved system manageability - single point of control for security management - more intelligent environment configuration wine - www.winehq.com I'm sure there's lots more to add. I'm not sure exactly why I'm posting this other than the fact that I have the feeling that with 6,000,000,000 people on this planet, we should be able to find a few capable and willing to help maintain and improve these products. Xemacs, in particular, seems like something that could likely die for lack of attention, and is probably worth keeping alive. Steve -- For a look at the future click below: http://www.suse.com || http://www.linuxbase.org http://www.kde.org || http://samba.anu.edu.au http://www.winehq.com || http://www.mozilla.org -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/support/faq