Re: Files from gnulib

[Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org>]

Bastien ROUCARIES <roucaries.bastien@gmail.com> writes:
>> It seems odd to me that the developers of a GNU library fight so
>> hard to avoid their code being portable. The gnulib manual [1] says:
>
> 8.3 limitation is really of another age, and could be lifted on dos is
> doslfn is fixed. DJGPP need dpmi adding a prerequist of
> doslfn is not so hard in order to compile (not run) emacs.

Indeed:  "portability" is a good goal in general, but it's a vague word.
There are obviously points at which it can be taken too far, where the
benefit isn't enough to justify the effort required and resulting
obfuscation of the code base.

Where these points are, of course, shifts over time.

[E.g., the once fairly widespread goal of supporting pre-ANSI C
compilers seems to have been largely abandoned these days.]

I'm not saying MSDOS has reached that point yet, just that a goal of
"portability" needs to be judged in the appropriate context.

-miles

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