This document is Copyright © 2020, 2021 John P. Willis

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts.

To provide a highly portable, feature-rich, free software implementation of the M programming language, focused on extensibility and easy application development on client, desktop, single-board, and older server devices.

FreeM is a free software implementation of the M programming language and database. This is woven into the foundational motivations of our core developers, and the observance of this identity is to be considered a foundational rule of the project.

We are first and foremost lovers of the M programming language, and are proud to represent it with our quirky–yet feature-rich–little implementation. No effort will be made or allowed to hide our M identity or cultural and community heritage.

We will continue to honor the enigmatic Shalom ha-Ashkenaz for his original contribution of FreeM to the community. The Star of David is the symbol he chose to represent this implementation, and it will remain forever enshrined in our code headers.

At least one external fork of FreeM is known to exist, pre-dating the current maintainer of the GUMP-era codebase taking over. The FreeM project and its members may not publicly disparage or plagiarize from any such fork. If the maintainers of these forks wish to join this project, they will be welcomed warmly into our community.

FreeM project contributors are free to criticize other free software M implementations outside of the project. However, disparaging other free software implementations in the FreeM mailing lists, Discord server, or other public or private social media venues run by or on behalf of the FreeM Project will not be tolerated, nor may FreeM contributors indicate or insinuate that their criticisms in other venues represent the official opinion of the FreeM Project itself.

Those who have signed nondisclosure agreements involving proprietary, closed-source M implementations may not contribute source code to FreeM, as our project and its host organization, Coherent Logic Development, cannot afford to defend itself against copyright infringement claims.

In FreeM Project documentation, Linux refers solely to a POSIX-compliant kernel written by Linus Torvalds. Operating systems built around this kernel will be referred to as GNU/Linux, or preferably, GNU+Linux.

The freem-dev mailing list (freem-dev@mailman.chivanet.org) is a venue for discussions among those contributing to FreeM itself. Commit messages are automatically sent there.

The freem-users mailing list (freem-users@mailman.chivanet.org) is a venue for those using FreeM to develop M programs and applications.

Internal project governance is handled in the project-policy channel of the FreeM Community Discord server.

John P. Willis (jpw@coherent-logic.com) is the project lead. In John’s absence, any member of the ``Core Team'' from the FreeM Community Discord server is authorized to speak with authority on matters of FreeM project governance, or redirect such matters to John per their own judgment.

Coherent Logic Development LLC lends its Internet and server infrastructure and corporate weight to the FreeM project. It does not exercise authority over the project itself or its contributors. We do not believe in corporate personhood.

Issue reporting is handled exclusively through the FreeM GitLab repository at https://gitlab.coherent-logic.com/jpw/freem

When reporting issues, please provide as much detail as possible. Leave the assignee field blank, unless you intend to assign yourself, and a FreeM core team member will assign the issue to the appropriate developer.

If you have write access to the FreeM git repository, please do your development in your own branch, and create a pull request for your changes. Unless you are a core developer, you may not commit directly to the main branch.

The FreeM project observes the GNU Kind Communication Guidelines (https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/kind-communication.html) as a Code of Conduct.

Our main focus is neither punitive nor retributive: most people who push the limits of acceptable behavior should be gently and privately reminded of the broader goals of the project, and guided with the same gentle hand towards healthier means of communication.

FreeM developers should strive to display radical hospitality–free of judgment– to all community members, participants, and outsiders, no matter what their background or belief system.

The one category of offense for which tolerance will be strictly limited is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy, in our estimation, is most prominently on display in acts based on prejudice. Whether against a race, culture, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, language, a mental, emotional, or physical challenge, all prejudices are rooted in hypocrisy.

Place the needs of the community above your own, and you will get along well here.

Contributions must follow the Coding Standards in Appendix E of The FreeM Manual.