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[Ulrich Müller <question707889@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Question #707889 on VM changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/vm/+question/707889

    Status: Open => Answered

Ulrich Müller proposed the following answer:
I try to summarize the main problems as I see them:

First, VM is a very old codebase and it was originally written for
XEmacs. GNU (FSF) Emacs has moved on, and keeping compatibility is
getting increasingly harder. I think I last tried VM with GNU Emacs 25
some years ago, and even with that version there were significant
problems. (IIRC it could no longer cope with PGP signed e-mail because
of some incompatibilities.) Now the last GNU Emacs release is 29.1 and
30 is on the horizon. Presumably the code should also be switched to
lexical binding. I remember that there was some discussion in the past
whether XEmacs compatibility should be dropped, but I don't remember if
there was any conclusion of it. IMHO staying compatible to XEmacs when
OTOH  the code needs to be modernized for GNU Emacs 30 is almost
impossible for a large package like VM.

Second, there's currently no active maintainer. The last release 8.2.0b
was in 2011, and the last commit to the trunk was in 2019. I used to
contribute but stopped around 2011 for lack of time. (Meanwhile, I've
moved to GNUS which admittedly takes some getting used to; I know that
others have moved to Wanderlust.) Without a dedicated maintainer willing
to take over, the package is essentially dead.

Third, VM using Bazaar/BZR/Breezy for version control when the rest of
the world uses Git doesn't help to attract any contributors.

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