> If a program would run only on Windows, we recommend that people not
> write that program at all. If we were to distribute such a program,
> that would put us in a hypocritical position. So we don't distribute
> such programs
Actually, we (i.e. the FSF and the GNU Project) do. When I worked on
the GNU Software for MS-Windows and MS-DOS CDROM, you agreed to put 3
programs there that were written specifically for the users of
Windows: the installer of the software, a clone of the Unix `man'
command, and DJTAR, a utility that unpacks .tar.gz archives.
I stand corrected on this detail, but the facts that you've cited
agree with the general principle that I stated.
I think the principle was: if the Windows-specific program helps
people use GNU software, it is okay to write and distribute it. For
the same reason, there are several Windows-specific programs that we
maintain and distribute with Emacs (addpm, cmdproxy, ddeclient, etc.).
These programs are best understood as part of porting Emacs to
Windows, making the standard Emacs functionality work there too.
Porting Emacs is something we support, whether the code is inside
Emacs or in a separate auxiliary program.
The crucial distinction is between porting Emacs so that its standard
functionality works on Windows, and extending Emacs with new
functionality that only works on Windows. The latter is what we don't
do. Extensions to Emacs must be done in a way that runs on the GNU
system.
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