From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Kastrup Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Emacs rewrite in a maintainable language Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2015 13:46:18 +0200 Message-ID: <87pp0h4qr9.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> References: <561A19AB.5060001@cumego.com> <87io6dl0h0.fsf@wanadoo.es> <87lhb82qxc.fsf@gmail.com> <878u78b3hg.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> <87h9lwyv33.fsf@gmail.com> <561C368F.6010306@cs.ucla.edu> <87oag3xb2i.fsf@gmail.com> <561D241E.1010902@cs.ucla.edu> <87vbaaagr5.fsf@gmail.com> <86io6amqhd.fsf@gmail.com> <06472760353f91fb2b6a1e427e954a70@mail.iq.pl> <874mhtra55.fsf@gnu.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1444823300 29053 80.91.229.3 (14 Oct 2015 11:48:20 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2015 11:48:20 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: =?utf-8?Q?Przemys=C5=82aw?= Wojnowski Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Oct 14 13:48:05 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1ZmKXK-0002rI-2r for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 14 Oct 2015 13:48:02 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:41814 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZmKXJ-00083Z-CY for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 14 Oct 2015 07:48:01 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:57323) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZmKVr-0007us-3p for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 14 Oct 2015 07:46:32 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZmKVq-00070w-8D for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 14 Oct 2015 07:46:31 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:55942) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZmKVf-0006t0-OB; Wed, 14 Oct 2015 07:46:19 -0400 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:41528 helo=lola) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1ZmKVf-0005ZG-7K; Wed, 14 Oct 2015 07:46:19 -0400 Original-Received: by lola (Postfix, from userid 1000) id A2BBAE33BC; Wed, 14 Oct 2015 13:46:18 +0200 (CEST) In-Reply-To: <874mhtra55.fsf@gnu.org> (Tassilo Horn's message of "Wed, 14 Oct 2015 12:56:38 +0200") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/25.0.50 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Error: Malformed IPv6 address (bad octet value). X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:191548 Archived-At: Tassilo Horn writes: > Przemys=C5=82aw Wojnowski writes: > >>>> I don't. I have no problem spending time to replace "char const *" >>>> into "const char *". Browsing through a code base that I want to get >>>> familiar with and fixing a small annoyance doesn't sound bad to me. >>> >>> Pointless churn. Find something that fixes an bug, or adds a useful >>> new feature, and work on that. You will find it more rewarding, and >>> other users and developers will find your contribution more helpful. >> >> Refactorings that increase maintainability (like this one) are very >> useful to other developers. >> >> Such changes, even small, accumulate towards something that can be >> called a "maintainable system". In (wannabe) healthy systems it is >> everyday practice. > > OTOH, they reduce the helpfulness version control offers to new and > old developers. I.e., it's good when "git blame" shows you the last > changes which actually changed the code, and switching "char const *" > to "const char *" or vice versa are no real changes. On the other hand, the blame for declarations is mostly less interesting than the blame for the actual use of such variables, so the attribution damage is not all that important in this case. > In the same vein, it's of course good to have one consistent indentation > style, git blame -w helps skipping across spacing changes. --=20 David Kastrup