Re: [Stephen.Berman@gmx.net: Re: redisplay]

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>     I see a gross flaw in installing "almost certain improvements"
>     in a central area of Emacs when we are trying to pin down a
>     final release.
>
> The improvement in question consists of at least partly fixing a bug.

You don't understand what prerelease testing is about.  The goal is
not to get a bugfree version of Emacs released.  Whoever thinks this
possible is lunatic.  The goal is to release a version of Emacs which
has not introduced severe regressions in a time frame where they could
have escaped noticing.

Every change, including bug fixes, in particular in general areas,
carries with it the danger of introducing _exactly_ those kind of
heavy regressions.  The ChangeLog files are _full_ of reverted fixes
which turned out to do something wrong.

If we go on fixing bugs that are not a direct consequence of very
recent changes, we will never get to the state where we can be sure
not to have release-critical bugs introduced without notice.

The bugs you found necessary fixing in the last few weeks are _much_
_much_ more harmless than having to use Emacs 21 instead of Emacs 22.

Emacs 22 will _never_ be in a bugfree state before the release.  Nor
will it become bugfree afterwards.  But at least afterwards we can
make overall progress.

In contrast to the problem of the delayed release, you are playing
with toy problems.  Problems that will pop up for years and years to
come.

It is not sane to delay the release because of that: a release is
appropriate when there is a definite improvement over the last release
without major regressions.  This has been the case for years,
actually.  There is no sense in instead of improvement demanding
perfection.  People experienced with software releases have told you
this time and again.  You chose to scorn them for their frustration
about you ignoring established procedures and conventional wisdom.

Do you really not see what you are doing?  For how long are you going
to sabotage the attempts of the developers to get Emacs 22.1 released?

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum