From: Stephen Gildea <stepheng+emacs@gildea.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
Cc: rpluim@gmail.com, 32931@debbugs.gnu.org, jidanni@jidanni.org
Subject: bug#32931: time-stamp-format: offer numeric time zones too
Date: Fri, 08 Nov 2019 16:09:37 -0800 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <2074.1573258177@tigger3.sg.gildea.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: Message from eliz@gnu.org of 7 Nov 2019 23:04:56 +0200 <83d0e3e6tj.fsf@gnu.org>
Eli, I would like to introduce this feature to time-stamp the same way
I have introduced other features: implement first, document later.
Implement in this release, document in a later release.
For example, the conversion "%q" (unqualified hostname) will be
new in Emacs 27. It is newly described in the doc string of
time-stamp-format. It is mentioned in 27.1 NEWS. But the only
new thing is the documentation; a key point is that the feature
works in Emacs 26, too. You can try it now:
(progn (require 'time-stamp) (time-stamp-string "%q"))
So why all this care with the timing of the time-stamp documentation?
Compatibility is difficult for time-stamp because people can set
time-stamp-pattern/time-stamp-format in their files. This captures
the current protocol, and these user files have to be considered when
making any change to the time-stamp implementation or documentation.
When someone sets time-stamp-pattern/time-stamp-format as a local
variable, they are relying on a promise that the next time Emacs
(any Emacs) reads that file, the setting will be honored still.
Imagine that I don't do it this way, and a user sees a new feature.
(Perhaps the new feature is accompanied by a compatibility warning, but
the user thinks, "I use only my laptop, which I just upgraded to Emacs
27.1, so this is okay.") They use the new feature in a local-variable
setting in their files. Time passes, and they forget they have used
this new feature. They give the file to a friend, or they edit it
from their work laptop, or they distribute the file on their git
repository. By one of these paths, the file ends up getting edited
with a different Emacs, say version 24.5. When that old Emacs saves
the file, it gets corrupted.
Given all the above, are you sure we want to document this now?
< Stephen
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2019-11-09 0:09 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 14+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2018-10-03 11:04 bug#32931: time-stamp-format: offer numeric time zones too 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson
2019-07-11 16:01 ` Lars Ingebrigtsen
2019-07-11 16:07 ` Lars Ingebrigtsen
2019-07-11 17:01 ` Lars Ingebrigtsen
2019-11-06 16:48 ` Stephen Gildea
2019-11-07 9:02 ` Robert Pluim
2019-11-07 14:33 ` Eli Zaretskii
2019-11-07 20:57 ` Stephen Gildea
2019-11-07 21:04 ` Eli Zaretskii
2019-11-09 0:09 ` Stephen Gildea [this message]
2019-11-09 7:15 ` Eli Zaretskii
2019-11-09 16:51 ` Stephen Gildea
2019-11-09 17:07 ` Eli Zaretskii
2019-11-14 5:16 ` bug#32931: closed: " Stephen Gildea
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