From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Preview: portable dumper Date: Sun, 04 Dec 2016 18:05:34 -0500 Message-ID: References: <047a67ec-9e29-7e4e-0fb0-24c3e59b5886@dancol.org> <83zikjxt1j.fsf@gnu.org> <8360n6ruzu.fsf@gnu.org> <834m2nplmb.fsf@gnu.org> <83inr2oje6.fsf@gnu.org> <83bmwuogfb.fsf@gnu.org> <878trydrbo.fsf@red-bean.com> <83a8cem1eq.fsf@gnu.org> <83zikdl7oo.fsf@gnu.org> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Utf-8 X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1480892784 29006 195.159.176.226 (4 Dec 2016 23:06:24 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 4 Dec 2016 23:06:24 +0000 (UTC) Cc: kfogel@red-bean.com, dancol@dancol.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Eli Zaretskii Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Dec 05 00:06:21 2016 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1cDfrP-000743-KX for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 05 Dec 2016 00:06:19 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:35993 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cDfrT-0004eO-Le for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 04 Dec 2016 18:06:23 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:54482) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cDfqv-0004eJ-VN for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 04 Dec 2016 18:05:50 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cDfqv-0000Vz-57 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 04 Dec 2016 18:05:49 -0500 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:35100) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cDfqg-0000RQ-TV; Sun, 04 Dec 2016 18:05:34 -0500 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1cDfqg-000626-7n; Sun, 04 Dec 2016 18:05:34 -0500 In-reply-to: <83zikdl7oo.fsf@gnu.org> (message from Eli Zaretskii on Sat, 03 Dec 2016 10:48:23 +0200) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 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" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:210040 Archived-At: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] > GC is stable for many years, and "just works". Bugs only happen there > when people make changes in GC code, for benefits that are not > essential. If there's no one on board who understands GC, we can > simply disallow any changes in that area. The issue you raised -- and it is a real consideration -- is that future changes in Lisp object formats would likely require changes in the portable dumper (if we use that), just as they would likely require changes in GC. If someday nobody can change GC, that would mean nobody can change Lisp object formats any more. It won't take very long before the portable dumper becomes as stable as GC. Then it would be the same issue for both. I don't think that having Lisp object format changes blocked by GC and the portable dumper is much worse than having them blocked by GC alone. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation (gnu.org, fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (internethalloffame.org) Skype: No way! See stallman.org/skype.html.