Why subr.el doesn't provide a feature?

Why subr.el doesn't provide a feature?

[Zhu Zihao]

There's no form like "(provide 'subr)" in subr.el. I'm interesting in the reason
of not doing such thing? Is it because it will cause conflict during the
bootstrap? 

Any answer will be appreciated.

--

Zihao

Re: Why subr.el doesn't provide a feature?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 11:59:30 +0800
> From: Zhu Zihao <all_but_last@163.com>
> Cc: eliz@gnu.org
> 
> There's no form like "(provide 'subr)" in subr.el. I'm interesting in the reason
> of not doing such thing? Is it because it will cause conflict during the
> bootstrap? 

Because it's preloaded, I guess.

Re: Why subr.el doesn't provide a feature?

[Zhu Zihao]

On Thu, 29 Aug 2019 15:12:08 +0800,
Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> 
> > Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 11:59:30 +0800
> > From: Zhu Zihao <all_but_last@163.com>
> > Cc: eliz@gnu.org
> > 
> > There's no form like "(provide 'subr)" in subr.el. I'm interesting in the reason
> > of not doing such thing? Is it because it will cause conflict during the
> > bootstrap? 
> 
> Because it's preloaded, I guess.

Should we add a provide form for subr? I ask this question because I see a elisp
file wrote "(require 'subr)" and no doubt that it failed to run because subr.el
didn't provide such feature.

Though it's rare condition because we just use subr.el without requiring it. But
each elisp library should provide a feature whose name is same as filename of
library on regular basis.

Re: Why subr.el doesn't provide a feature?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 18:59:00 +0800
> From: Zhu Zihao <all_but_last@163.com>
> Cc: Zhu Zihao <all_but_last@163.com>,
> 	emacs-devel@gnu.org
> 
> Should we add a provide form for subr?

Why is it needed?

> I ask this question because I see a elisp
> file wrote "(require 'subr)" and no doubt that it failed to run because subr.el
> didn't provide such feature.

That's a bug in that Lisp file, isn't it?

Re: Why subr.el doesn't provide a feature?

[Basil L. Contovounesios]

Zhu Zihao <all_but_last@163.com> writes:

> Should we add a provide form for subr? I ask this question because I see a elisp
> file wrote "(require 'subr)" and no doubt that it failed to run because subr.el
> didn't provide such feature.

Can you show which file this was in?
Perhaps the author meant to write (require 'subr-x).

-- 
Basil

Re: Why subr.el doesn't provide a feature?

[Zhu Zihao]

On Sat, 31 Aug 2019 18:12:36 +0800,
Basil L. Contovounesios wrote:
> 
> Zhu Zihao <all_but_last@163.com> writes:
> 
> > Should we add a provide form for subr? I ask this question because I see a elisp
> > file wrote "(require 'subr)" and no doubt that it failed to run because subr.el
> > didn't provide such feature.
> 
> Can you show which file this was in?
> Perhaps the author meant to write (require 'subr-x).
> 
> -- 
> Basil
Thanks for your intention, but I think it just a misnomer because the author of
that elisp file had require subr-x explicitly.

And now subr requirement had been removed in
https://github.com/manateelazycat/snails/commit/4677daf80a8ee6d5202b98d1acde7a99c2294ec9

IMO, missing provide form is a counter-intuitive behavior because almost all
library have one(even backquote.el). I can't find a reason for why subr lacks
this, so I guess adding provide form for subr may breaks emacs bootstrap.

Re: Why subr.el doesn't provide a feature?

[Basil L. Contovounesios]

Zhu Zihao <all_but_last@163.com> writes:

> IMO, missing provide form is a counter-intuitive behavior because almost all
> library have one(even backquote.el). I can't find a reason for why subr lacks
> this, so I guess adding provide form for subr may breaks emacs bootstrap.

Since subr.el is as "core" as Elisp can get, providing it as a named
feature isn't strictly necessary; most Emacs versions I'm familiar with
can simply assume that it is baked in.

Features added to subr.el later, such as hashtable-print-readable, are
indeed provided as a named feature in subr.el.

I am not against adding (provide 'subr) to subr.el for aesthetic
reasons, but functionally it is not strictly "required". ;)

-- 
Basil

Re: Why subr.el doesn't provide a feature?

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ 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. ]]]

Subr is always supposed to be loaded, so is there ever a real
need to call require about it?

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation (https://gnu.org, https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)

Re: Why subr.el doesn't provide a feature?

[Basil L. Contovounesios]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

> Subr is always supposed to be loaded, so is there ever a real
> need to call require about it?

AFAIK, no.

-- 
Basil