bug#39992: Merge external idlwave development efforts into GNU Emacs?

bug#39992: Merge external idlwave development efforts into GNU Emacs?

[Stefan Kangas]

X-Debbugs-CC: JD Smith <jdsmith@rain.mhr.utoledo.edu>

Hi,

I don't use it myself, but I noticed that there is ongoing development
of idlwave.el here:

    https://github.com/jdtsmith/idlwave

As far as I can tell from the git log, the last change to idlwave by
JD Smith was on Fri Apr 27 19:34:22 2007 +0000.

Would it be possible to merge this effort into the version distributed
with GNU Emacs itself?  That way more users could benefit from the
improvements.

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,
Stefan Kangas

bug#39992: Merge external idlwave development efforts into GNU Emacs?

[Stefan Kangas]

Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se> writes:

> I don't use it myself, but I noticed that there is ongoing development
> of idlwave.el here:
>
>     https://github.com/jdtsmith/idlwave
>
> As far as I can tell from the git log, the last change to idlwave by
> JD Smith was on Fri Apr 27 19:34:22 2007 +0000.
>
> Would it be possible to merge this effort into the version distributed
> with GNU Emacs itself?  That way more users could benefit from the
> improvements.

I note that on the GitHub page, there has since been added a note:

    Note: IDLWAVE is currently not maintained. In current form it
    supports IDL v8.6, and is still in daily use by some users.

    If you are interested in taking over IDLWAVE maintenance, please
    post an issue. See the DEVELOP file for information on the file
    structure layout.

I'm not sure what this means for the idlwave we ship with Emacs.

JD Smith, do you mind if someone else tries to on merge your external
development efforts into Emacs itself?

bug#39992: Merge external idlwave development efforts into GNU Emacs?

[Stefan Kangas]

Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se> writes:

> Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se> writes:
>
>> I don't use it myself, but I noticed that there is ongoing development
>> of idlwave.el here:
>>
>>     https://github.com/jdtsmith/idlwave
>>
>> As far as I can tell from the git log, the last change to idlwave by
>> JD Smith was on Fri Apr 27 19:34:22 2007 +0000.
>>
>> Would it be possible to merge this effort into the version distributed
>> with GNU Emacs itself?  That way more users could benefit from the
>> improvements.
>
> I note that on the GitHub page, there has since been added a note:
>
>     Note: IDLWAVE is currently not maintained. In current form it
>     supports IDL v8.6, and is still in daily use by some users.
>
>     If you are interested in taking over IDLWAVE maintenance, please
>     post an issue. See the DEVELOP file for information on the file
>     structure layout.
>
> I'm not sure what this means for the idlwave we ship with Emacs.
>
> JD Smith, do you mind if someone else tries to on merge your external
> development efforts into Emacs itself?

The above email bounced, so I have now copied in the email address used
in the GitHub repository.

bug#39992: Merge external idlwave development efforts into GNU Emacs?

[JD Smith]

I’m happy for anyone to work on merging the latest IDLWAVE into Emacs, and I can assist with this process as time allows.  This might require some moderate effort, since I believe I refactored and simplified the code layout (in an attempt to attract a new maintainer) after my last push into emacs core.  This refactoring occurred around 20015/16. My last commit on GitHub was actually in 2018.  

I’ve also discussed with several of the emacs devels over the years moving IDLWAVE to a package on Elpa.  I think that’s a more appropriate home, since there are not terribly many users (as judged by the number of email queries I get now vs. a decade ago).

I still use IDLWAVE, but far more rarely than before.  There is currently a bug related to routine info scanning that I need to look into.  I’m happy to do this in the context of a merged core/elpa package if someone is able to lead that effort.  There were numerous changes on the emacs side based on obsoleted functions, etc. that I never found the time to bring over. 

And needless to say, if you know of any users of IDLWAVE who are interested in taking over maintenance and overseeing its re-folding back into the emacs core/elpa, I’d be delighted to speak with them. 

Best,
JDS

> On Sep 19, 2021, at 12:05 PM, Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se> wrote:
> 
> Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se> writes:
> 
>> Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se> writes:
>> 
>>> I don't use it myself, but I noticed that there is ongoing development
>>> of idlwave.el here:
>>> 
>>>    https://github.com/jdtsmith/idlwave
>>> 
>>> As far as I can tell from the git log, the last change to idlwave by
>>> JD Smith was on Fri Apr 27 19:34:22 2007 +0000.
>>> 
>>> Would it be possible to merge this effort into the version distributed
>>> with GNU Emacs itself?  That way more users could benefit from the
>>> improvements.
>> 
>> I note that on the GitHub page, there has since been added a note:
>> 
>>    Note: IDLWAVE is currently not maintained. In current form it
>>    supports IDL v8.6, and is still in daily use by some users.
>> 
>>    If you are interested in taking over IDLWAVE maintenance, please
>>    post an issue. See the DEVELOP file for information on the file
>>    structure layout.
>> 
>> I'm not sure what this means for the idlwave we ship with Emacs.
>> 
>> JD Smith, do you mind if someone else tries to on merge your external
>> development efforts into Emacs itself?
> 
> The above email bounced, so I have now copied in the email address used
> in the GitHub repository.

bug#39992: Merge external idlwave development efforts into GNU Emacs?

[Stefan Kangas]

JD Smith <jdtsmith@gmail.com> writes:

> I’m happy for anyone to work on merging the latest IDLWAVE into Emacs,
> and I can assist with this process as time allows.  This might require
> some moderate effort, since I believe I refactored and simplified the
> code layout (in an attempt to attract a new maintainer) after my last
> push into emacs core.  This refactoring occurred around 20015/16. My
> last commit on GitHub was actually in 2018.

Thank you for your efforts in maintaining this package.  I don't
actually use it myself, so I only have a few observations on the
maintenance aspects below.

> I’ve also discussed with several of the emacs devels over the years
> moving IDLWAVE to a package on Elpa.  I think that’s a more
> appropriate home, since there are not terribly many users (as judged
> by the number of email queries I get now vs. a decade ago).

That makes sense to me.  I'm copying in Stefan Monnier, who is in charge
of GNU ELPA, in case he has anything to add.

> I still use IDLWAVE, but far more rarely than before.  There is
> currently a bug related to routine info scanning that I need to look
> into.  I’m happy to do this in the context of a merged core/elpa
> package if someone is able to lead that effort.  There were numerous
> changes on the emacs side based on obsoleted functions, etc. that I
> never found the time to bring over.

If we could get those changes merged into your version, perhaps we could
just replace the one in Emacs with yours?

It would of course be excellent if you could eventually find the time to
do that, and a priori it sounds like much less works than going the
other way around.

> And needless to say, if you know of any users of IDLWAVE who are
> interested in taking over maintenance and overseeing its re-folding
> back into the emacs core/elpa, I’d be delighted to speak with them.

I currently don't, unfortunately.  I suppose we shall have to wait and
see if there is someone interested.

Thanks again for getting back to us about this.

bug#39992: Merge external idlwave development efforts into GNU Emacs?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se>
> Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2021 10:23:02 -0700
> Cc: 39992@debbugs.gnu.org, Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>
> 
> > I’ve also discussed with several of the emacs devels over the years
> > moving IDLWAVE to a package on Elpa.  I think that’s a more
> > appropriate home, since there are not terribly many users (as judged
> > by the number of email queries I get now vs. a decade ago).
> 
> That makes sense to me.  I'm copying in Stefan Monnier, who is in charge
> of GNU ELPA, in case he has anything to add.

Unfortunately, we cannot move anything from core to ELPA until we have
a way of producing a release tarball with ELPA packages.

bug#39992: Merge external idlwave development efforts into GNU Emacs?

[Stefan Kangas]

Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se> writes:

> X-Debbugs-CC: JD Smith <jdsmith@rain.mhr.utoledo.edu>
>
> Hi,
>
> I don't use it myself, but I noticed that there is ongoing development
> of idlwave.el here:
>
>     https://github.com/jdtsmith/idlwave
>
> As far as I can tell from the git log, the last change to idlwave by
> JD Smith was on Fri Apr 27 19:34:22 2007 +0000.
>
> Would it be possible to merge this effort into the version distributed
> with GNU Emacs itself?  That way more users could benefit from the
> improvements.
>
> Thanks in advance.

IDLWAVE was move to GNU ELPA in Bug#71157, so I'm closing this bug
report.