From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Should native compilation be enabled by default? Date: Mon, 04 Mar 2024 22:42:32 -0500 Message-ID: References: <86sf19p0hw.fsf@gnu.org> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Utf-8 Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="29140"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Eli Zaretskii Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Tue Mar 05 04:43:28 2024 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1rhLiB-0007Np-Nu for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Tue, 05 Mar 2024 04:43:27 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1] helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1rhLhM-0006Mw-EF; Mon, 04 Mar 2024 22:42:36 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1rhLhK-0006Mm-I3 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 04 Mar 2024 22:42:34 -0500 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::e]) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1rhLhK-0008Qx-9w for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 04 Mar 2024 22:42:34 -0500 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gnu.org; s=fencepost-gnu-org; h=Date:References:Subject:In-Reply-To:To:From: mime-version; bh=sco+itEfnpw9dnAK4oghCpc064UZZeY3L+xtk4sHc0k=; b=NqLZWpFxZMXj TmoHVY70JPhW5w3H+WTU8bb0W20/wUazIvrQKTFVWDgm1VWnfGHzz2iJw0fTEnWnsa+ziwqQG4LKc 7B6wEa+lkESJcJmk5uCtHHWkGkmzLM2hxaLw1WMdR80hOEarOMfRRkdFRucbOFQzcJRx+rOPBxi2W Qs1Dpah9FXuC4fq7FF9aYVEJfI3TpZ5DwmJaSt28b6hDji9Ghj2eCVfbl54wWiE0yf5UQbIVBxVvy lWnAB8h6w0suY9Jf196SpXoHpqIflvbmqz1raQ29VgLEDoHJxEOmBHitQalOsQOoI7xokEU3aO416 KtTHlkdoxFIFZYk3Zw6bsQ==; Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1rhLhI-0004Oq-5j; Mon, 04 Mar 2024 22:42:32 -0500 In-Reply-To: <86sf19p0hw.fsf@gnu.org> (message from Eli Zaretskii on Sat, 02 Mar 2024 09:16:11 +0200) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 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-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:316815 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. ]]] > > Enabling native compilation has disadvantages as well as advantages. > What are the disadvantages? If Emacs compilation by default causes native compilation, it will be slower. It will also be more fragile. Byte-compilation is a self-contained Emacs feature, and aside from occasional bugs that affect specific code, it never breaks. On general principles we can see that native compilation is likely to go wrong because something has disappeared, or because of bugs in other programs that you wouldnt otherwise ever use. Native compilation is useful mainly for power users who want to run Lisp programs that normally are too slow. There is no sense directing most users into doing things gthe complex way instead of the simple way. The people who participate in emacs-devel tend to be power users. What they think is not a good guide to what is useful for most users. To find that out, we should poll the users. -- Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org) Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org) Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)