Re: Recentish C-s M-y change

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
> Cc: ams@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org, larsi@gnus.org,
> 	drew.adams@oracle.com, juri@linkov.net
> Date: Mon, 04 Jan 2021 00:17:45 -0500
> 
> 1. When people see a UI change being discussed in a bug report context,
> people should try to speak up and say, "Remember, the rule is we should
> discuss this on emacs-devel.  Let's move this discussion there now!"
> 
> 2. Someone should send mail to emacs-devel with a Subject line saying
> "UI change proposal: <what it is>", and a body proposing and explaining
> the change.

People can always speak up, and someone -- anyone -- can always start
a discussion about some change they think deserves a discussion.
There's no need for rules to do that.

What I object to is a rule that a change cannot be committed before
such a discussion happens and runs to its conclusion.

> 3. If someone notices the change after it is release, and objects, and
> if the discussion on emacs-devel did not happen as the rule calls for,
> then we would drop the usual reluctance to undo a change that had been
> in a release.

I object to this as well.  I see no reason to undo a change just
because someone objects to it.  That'd mean we give single individuals
too much power, just because they post to emacs-devel.  It's a sure
recipe for stalemate.  Based on the experience, this is completely
unjustified, as in the vast majority of cases the changes are
sensible, and mistakes are in good faith and usually quickly fixed.

> 4. We would not actually revert the change -- after all, some people
> do like the changed behavior.  Instead, we would add a variable to
> specify whether to use the changed behavior or the old behavior, and
> make the old behavior the default.

Like I said, this already happens, at least as a policy.  You can find
many threads here and on the bug list where changes are requested to
become backward-compatible or provide options to revert to previous
behavior.  There's no need for any new rules here, certainly not rules
that will so significantly slow down development.