From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: spiegel@genion.de Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: deleting rcs keywords from emacs sources Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 09:51:11 +0000 (GMT) Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: <5192113.1080035471618.JavaMail.root@tintin.london.ongenie.net> Reply-To: spiegel@genion.de NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1080036050 31522 80.91.224.253 (23 Mar 2004 10:00:50 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 10:00:50 +0000 (UTC) Cc: spiegel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Tue Mar 23 11:00:38 2004 Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1B5ii6-0006OK-00 for ; Tue, 23 Mar 2004 11:00:38 +0100 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1B5ii6-00006U-00 for ; Tue, 23 Mar 2004 11:00:38 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1B5idP-0005bd-TD for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Tue, 23 Mar 2004 04:55:47 -0500 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1B5ici-0005bK-DT for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 23 Mar 2004 04:55:04 -0500 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1B5ic9-00054M-T7 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 23 Mar 2004 04:55:01 -0500 Original-Received: from [193.113.160.14] (helo=mail.o2.co.uk) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1B5ibb-0004iz-H7; Tue, 23 Mar 2004 04:53:55 -0500 Original-Received: from tintin.london.ongenie.net (193.113.160.76) by mail.o2.co.uk (7.0.020) id 404DD2C9005066B8; Tue, 23 Mar 2004 09:51:50 +0000 Original-To: miles@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.4 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:20775 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:20775 > [...] and as far as I know aren't really particularly useful, > so I'd like to simply delete them from the > emacs sources. I absolutely, positively couldn't live without them. I have in fact doubts whether intelligent life on earth would be possible at all without them. Of course that could be just me, so I'm open for counter-arguments :-) I have used these keywords on countless occasions in VC maintenance. I don't know how I should identify the file versions that people are talking about without these stamps inside the files. It is true that as long as people use vanilla code from an Emacs release, they can always say "I have this problem with VC from Emacs 21.x", but it is still easier for me if they just say "vc.el version 1.311 barfs on me". Then I don't have to go looking which version we shipped with Emacs 21.x (if a release tag was applied at all). Identifying the version becomes impossible when I send people an updated copy of vc.el (which I often do), or they grab it from CVS. What other means would be available? Should I ask for an md5sum of the file, or a copy of the file itself and diff it against my copy? If the headers are a problem during merging, I think it would be very worthwhile to implement a way for the merge operation to ignore them. That would be helpful for many people like myself for whom the version headers are an integral part of their work routine. (Incidentally, a user once reported a VC bug to me in an old version that didn't have headers in the file, and he was astonished that he couldn't find any.) As I said, I am certainly open for alternatives (incidentally, does your remark mean that arch doesn't have version headers at all, Miles)? Sorry for the rough writeup and the unfamiliar e-mail address, I'm writing from a customer site. Andre