Re: VC-SVN problem

[John Paul Wallington <jpw@gnu.org>]

> > Just checking: do you mean (eval-when-compile (require 'cl)) ?
> > 
> > (The cl package defines a compiler macro for `list*', and the elisp
> > manual's coding conventions say not to load cl at runtime.)
> 
> I've gotta be missing something obvious:

I don't think so.

> What do you do if your package actually uses functions from CL, not
> just macros?  Then CL must be loaded at runtime.

Well, some functions in the cl library have corresponding compiler
macros and you can use those without loading cl at runtime in addition
to its normal macros.  Also, by default the byte compiler issues
"function from cl package called at runtime" warnings now so
inadvertent use at runtime is easy to detect.

I guess whether to rewrite an existing package to avoid runtime use of
cl or to follow those conventions when developing a new package is up
to the maintainers of that package.

> Are such packages simply unsuitable for inclusion in the Emacs
> distribution?

Yes, I believe so.

Earlier in this thread RMS said that it's not acceptable for any
package in Emacs to require cl at runtime:
http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2004-05/msg00506.html