Re: { SPAM 2 }::Re: Idea for determining what users use

[Luc Teirlinck <teirllm@dms.auburn.edu>]

Kim Storm wrote:

   Furthermore, I think the benefits of the proposed features are very
   limited, and that our efforts are better spent on new features.  As
   Stefan has pointed out, there's already a warning if people are using
   a package in the obsolete directory -- I think that's the right
   approach: Tell the user that the feature is considered obsolete, 
   so if he disagrees, he should send us a bug-report.

I basically agree, but there is one problem for which one might still
want to find a solution in this case:

If I do:

M-x load-library RETURN x-menu,

I indeed get a warning.

If I put:

(require 'x-menu)

in my .emacs, or some other file, I will only notice the warning if I
examine the *Messages* buffer, assuming it is not gone by then (due to
the size limit on the *Messages* buffer).

I do not think one should try to pressure the user to mail a
"complaint", before he has had any chance to investigate the situation
and try to find out for himself why the package was obsoleted.

He should get a chance to see stuff like:

;;; uncompress.el --- auto-decompression hook for visiting .Z files

;; M-x auto-compression-mode is a more modern replacement for this
   package.

Or:

;; profile.el --- Emacs profiler (OBSOLETE; use elp.el instead)

But there must be a way to make the message less easy to overlook, as
well as, maybe, to include the above info in the message, or
instructions on where to look for such info, and an email address to
mail counterarguments to.

Sincerely,

Luc.