From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stefan Monnier" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Idea for determining what users use Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 10:28:08 -0400 Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: <200305271428.h4RES8P7007129@rum.cs.yale.edu> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1054047720 18936 80.91.224.249 (27 May 2003 15:02:00 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 15:02:00 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Tue May 27 17:01:57 2003 Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 19KftQ-0004b9-00 for ; Tue, 27 May 2003 16:57:37 +0200 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 19Kg7A-0001uV-00 for ; Tue, 27 May 2003 17:11:48 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.20) id 19Kfoq-00070z-SB for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Tue, 27 May 2003 10:52:52 -0400 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.20) id 19Kfay-00045n-UH for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 27 May 2003 10:38:32 -0400 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.20) id 19KfRJ-0001Gh-Pg for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 27 May 2003 10:28:34 -0400 Original-Received: from rum.cs.yale.edu ([128.36.229.169]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.20) id 19KfR0-00016D-DN; Tue, 27 May 2003 10:28:14 -0400 Original-Received: from rum.cs.yale.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by rum.cs.yale.edu (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id h4RES80i007131; Tue, 27 May 2003 10:28:08 -0400 Original-Received: (from monnier@localhost) by rum.cs.yale.edu (8.12.8/8.12.8/Submit) id h4RES8P7007129; Tue, 27 May 2003 10:28:08 -0400 X-Mailer: exmh version 2.4 06/23/2000 with nmh-1.0.4 Original-To: Richard Stallman X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1b5 Precedence: list List-Id: Emacs development discussions. List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Archive: List-Unsubscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:14326 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:14326 > We have no good way to determine if anyone still uses a feature. > Maybe we can create one. > > Imagine a function called note-feature-used. > You call it like this: (note-feature-used 'foo "Foo"). > The first time you call it, it sends mail to > emacs-features-used@gnu.org with subject Foo, > asking you for permission to send it, > and it records (setq foo t) in your .emacs file. > If you call it again, it does nothing. > > We could put these calls into various files and functions > in order to find out (after the next release) whether anyone uses them. I think such an approach is much too much "in your face" and as a user I'd run screaming. OTOH I thought that was already the idea behing the `obsolete' subdirectory: The way I see it work, moving a package to `obsolete' is telling users "we think this is not used any more and we're planning to get rid of it. If we're wrong, you'd better tell us soon". Now the problem is that people might not notice that a package is obsolete. My recent patch for `load' to output a warning message when loading an `obsolete' package is a small step towards making users more aware of the issue. We could go a little further, of course. In any case, based on my analysis I think we should not be afraid to move stuff into `obsolete', since we can always revert it if people start complaining. Stefan