Re: Bug in emacs

[era@iki.fi]

On 16 Oct 2003 10:59:30 +0300, era@iki.fi posted to gmane.emacs.bugs:
 > Oog, I got this backwards. (Thanks to RMS for pointing out my error in
 > private mail.) The problem is that when a macro is +not+ defined when
 > code is byte-compiled, the compiler assumes it's a function call; then
 > when the compiled code is executed, and the macro +is+ defined, you
 > get an error.

And just to elaborate, one semi-important aspect of this is that it is
hard to be sure that you are (require)ing everything you should, and
that getting a warning when you are compiling code which uses a macro
which is not properly required by that code would be a useful aid for
developers.

A related problem which I imagine could be tackled with the same
mechanism is that if you happen to have loaded or required a library
which your code uses, but the code does not properly load or require
it, you don't get any warning at compilation time currently. It would
be useful to get a warning in this case, too.

Down the line, you could even have a function which figures out and
automatically inserts adequate (require) and (load) forms in your
code. (Figuring out whether a library provides something you would
like to require is annoying drudgery too.)

/* era */

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