From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Compiling emacs-24.0.90 on AIX 5.3 Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 01:58:32 +0900 Message-ID: <87sjmyp2o7.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> References: <029DB5D5-3EB6-414F-95C8-1297DC424A7A@gmail.com> <6F844752-A12B-4ABF-9A3C-4C3423DEDAB1@gmail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1318438732 708 80.91.229.12 (12 Oct 2011 16:58:52 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:58:52 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Perry Smith , emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Glenn Morris Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Oct 12 18:58:46 2011 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([140.186.70.17]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1RE28f-0000pc-It for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 12 Oct 2011 18:58:41 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:43370 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RE28f-0000lz-3S for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:58:41 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]:35449) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RE28b-0000lj-Sd for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:58:38 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RE28a-00082I-S1 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:58:37 -0400 Original-Received: from mgmt2.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp ([130.158.97.224]:49241) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RE28a-000825-IZ; Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:58:36 -0400 Original-Received: from uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp [130.158.99.156]) by mgmt2.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id AAE919707BD; Thu, 13 Oct 2011 01:58:32 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: by uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix, from userid 1000) id A41D31A2739; Thu, 13 Oct 2011 01:58:32 +0900 (JST) In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: VM 8.2.0a1 under 21.5 (beta31) "ginger" 6c76f5b7e2e3 XEmacs Lucid (x86_64-unknown-linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-Received-From: 130.158.97.224 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:145035 Archived-At: Glenn Morris writes: > However, you may be disappointed because I cannot think of any new > feature that fits this description. Do you mean Lisp code or literal > libfoo.so libraries? I suppose he means DLLs that wrap libraries such as zlib or libpng, which have until recently been prohibited because they may allow an inadvertant run-around the GPL, and now are under consideration because a reasonable way to ensure that users who want only GPL plugins will get them has been developed. This would allow writing a version of `load' that loads such features on demand (eg, via `(require 'dbus)' or similar). ISTR that the related FFI feature may also now be OK. Because the wrapper DLLs are demand-loaded, they could be built on a "loaded" system with all necessary libraries, and distributed with Emacs (eg, on a corporate network). On a "lightweight" system with few system libraries, Emacs would run, but attempts to use those features would fail at the `require' stage. There would be no need to recompile Emacs to take advantage of newly added system libraries. (In theory; in practice many free software libraries have enough "API churn" that even with DLLs you need to rebuild the wrapper DLLs when new versions come out.) I don't think there's any "official" development roadmap to these features yet, just Richard's statement that the GPL marking method used by GCC has been vetted by the FSF's lawyers and should be good enough for Emacs, too. AFAIK no decision has been made about whether either on-demand DLL loading or FFI is technically suited for Emacs.