Merging MPS a.k.a. scratch/igc, yet again

[Stefan Kangas <stefankangas@gmail.com>]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> On the other hand, IIUC, we have some way to go with making the merging
>> of the mpc branch a guarantee.  While I'm an enthusiastic supporter of
>> the great work that's being done on the mpc branch, isn't hedging our
>> bets prudent until that work is done?
>
> From where I stand, what's left to do on the branch is stability:
> using the branch, reporting bugs, and fixing them, especially on some
> rarer platforms (*BSD, for example).  Plus some decisions: do we fork
> MPS or not, for example.  So it isn't such a distant future.

In that case, I'd suggest that we start working on getting README-IGC
into an excellent state.  In August, when I last tried building the
branch, getting it to build was non-trivial, but I didn't try with the
latest instructions.

Taking a look at README-IGC, it seems like we're still missing build
instructions for Debian.  Maybe people could volunteer to add other
popular distros too, and *BSD, etc.  (If the idea is that such users
should just follow the instructions under "Building MPS yourself", then
we should say that instead of "TBD".)

Once we feel happy that it's reasonably straightforward to follow the
instructions, I'd suggest that Someone (TM) makes a post to emacs-devel,
asking people to start seriously testing the branch.  Such a post should
normally get picked up by Emacs News, Reddit, etc. and hopefully the
branch will then start seeing wider use.  (Remember to Cc Sacha Chua to
get it on Emacs News.)

I'm sure that users will be excited to help test igc once they
understand that we're working seriously on stabilizing it in preparation
of getting it merged.