Re: [External] : [emacs bookmark.el] Sorting by last set

[Karl Fogel <kfogel@red-bean.com>]

On 24 May 2022, Lars Ingebrigtsen wrote:
>Manuel Giraud <manuel@ledu-giraud.fr> writes:
>
>> Yes I've seen this comment in bookmark.el. It seems that it 
>> should not
>> be taken lightly. So this rules out adding a "modified date" 
>> field (my
>> 2nd option) but maybe my first option (sorting 'bookmark-alist' 
>> in last
>> modified order by default) is still possible.
>
>Extending the bookmark format (by adding more fields) is totally 
>possible.
>
>I think sorting by last set sounds like a nice feature -- patches
>welcome.

I agree.  Extending the format to add fields like 'created-date' 
and/or 'last-modified' date seems fine to me, to support features 
like this.

In fact, when I was reviewing and applying Manuel's recent changes 
to toggle sorting in the bookmark menu buffer, I was already 
thinking that this would all be easier if the bookmark itself 
carried its creation date.

Drew, correct me if my guess is wrong, but does your objection 
(earlier in this thread) to extending the bookmark file format 
stem from the fact that long ago there was at least one -- maybe 
more? -- format revision that was not done in a compatible way? 
(I think it may have been my fault, too, but it's too long ago for 
me to remember clearly.)

Anyway, we fixed things and nowadays the format is quite easily 
extensible in a backwards-compatible way.  The PARAM-ALIST 
component of each bookmark object is just an alist with a known 
set key/value pairs.  If we add a new pair, old versions of 
bookmark.el will just ignore it while new versions will make use 
of it.

If you have some other reason for objecting to extending the 
format, though, please say.

Best regards,
-Karl