Re: the ...-unload-hook convention doesn't work

[Dave Love <d.love@dl.ac.uk>]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

> It makes no sense to think about unload-feature in terms
> of the cl package.

I don't think that's actually true; it's just not worth the effort,
and isn't an issue when you follow the Emacs conventions.  (I did toy
with the idea of making it work.)

> However, the motive for unload-feature had to do with
> reclaiming memory.

It's also rather useful during development.

> With the other changes in size of machines,
> size of disks, and size of Emacs address space, maybe that is
> pointless.

Emacs memory requirements, coupled with its poor GC, are certainly
significant in the situations I typically use it.  That was even a
motivation for me working on the GC.  Since no one else appears to be
interested, I assume this doesn't apply to developers, but perhaps
they don't have a sufficiently wide perspective.  (I'm currently in 32
MB.)

As it happens, I do occasionally unload a Gnus feature which leaks.
That typically reduces the number of used conses from ~1M to ~300k and
means GC then doesn't typically thrash on my work system though it
leaves a lot of unused ones.

-- 
The ultimate computing slogan is "Your Mileage May Vary".
  -- Richard O' Keefe