After 32 years as the maintainer of the Emacs editor, Richard M. Stallman, has assigned the task to two younger developers.
Last Friday Stallman announced on the Emacs mailing list that he would be handing over to two younger developers, Stefan Monnier and Chong Yidong. His announcement was short and to the point: "Stefan and Yidong offered to take over, so I am willing to hand over Emacs development to them." It is not currently known when the hand over will take place.
The new maintainers are both experienced Emacs developers. Stefan Monnier is an assistant professor at the Unversity of Montreal. Chong Yidong is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduate. During her time at MIT she worked on the theoretical physics of compressed material.
In another posting on the mailing list Richard Stallman writes that this would not be the first change. Joe Arceneaux, Jim Blandy and Gerd Moellmann are all former Emacs maintainers so this is the fourth time that somebody apart from Stallman has had the job.
In an interview concerning the change Stallman states that he is just to busy to devote the time Emacs deserves to its development. He has been thinking of quitting his maintainer job for over a year.
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