From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Alan Mackenzie Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: How about making `set-minibuffer-window' obsolete? Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2021 20:50:17 +0000 Message-ID: References: <838s6ndjon.fsf@gnu.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="7190"; 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 16 21:51:07 2021 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 1lMGeh-0001ll-5c for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Tue, 16 Mar 2021 21:51:07 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:47528 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1lMGeg-0004xR-8W for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Tue, 16 Mar 2021 16:51:06 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:45340) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1lMGdy-0004Qw-T3 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 16 Mar 2021 16:50:22 -0400 Original-Received: from colin.muc.de ([193.149.48.1]:19156 helo=mail.muc.de) by eggs.gnu.org with smtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1lMGdw-0008GL-Oe for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 16 Mar 2021 16:50:22 -0400 Original-Received: (qmail 46123 invoked by uid 3782); 16 Mar 2021 20:50:18 -0000 Original-Received: from acm.muc.de (p4fe1520c.dip0.t-ipconnect.de [79.225.82.12]) (using STARTTLS) by colin.muc.de (tmda-ofmipd) with ESMTP; Tue, 16 Mar 2021 21:50:17 +0100 Original-Received: (qmail 9054 invoked by uid 1000); 16 Mar 2021 20:50:17 -0000 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <838s6ndjon.fsf@gnu.org> X-Submission-Agent: TMDA/1.3.x (Ph3nix) X-Primary-Address: acm@muc.de Received-SPF: pass client-ip=193.149.48.1; envelope-from=acm@muc.de; helo=mail.muc.de X-Spam_score_int: -18 X-Spam_score: -1.9 X-Spam_bar: - X-Spam_report: (-1.9 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, SPF_HELO_NONE=0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 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" Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:266506 Archived-At: Hello, Eli. On Tue, Mar 16, 2021 at 20:42:32 +0200, Eli Zaretskii wrote: > > Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2021 18:16:35 +0000 > > From: Alan Mackenzie > > Does anybody have any objection to me making set-minibuffer-window > > obsolete? > > It's defined in src/minibuf.c, but not used by any C function, and it's > > not used by any Lisp in Emacs itself - the nearest to a use is a > > commented out occurrence in lisp/textmodes/ispell.el. > > This function just sets the C variable minibuf_window. This variable is > > defined (by comment) to be the minibuffer window of the selected frame. > > So setting it to a random mini-window will cause nasty problems. > > Actually, I'd prefer just to remove the function entirely - but there's > > always the chance it's being used by some external library. > > So, any objections? > I'd object to obsoleting a command just because it can be dangerous > when used unwisely. Every use of this command is unwise. It cannot possibly do anything useful. It can only cause problems. > Emacs always gives you enough rope to hang yourself, and trusts you > that you won't. Rope is generally useful stuff. Changing the value of an internal C variable in violation of its definition is never useful. This command appears to have been useful in the distant past - it's last use was commented out in 1998 in the following commit: commit f5136913a18bd7415c59dbf7bcaf3c316593c41d Author: Richard M. Stallman Date: Thu Apr 30 06:43:48 1998 +0000 Generalized region skipping added. Checks comments only in code. Added backward compatible support for customize. Could I ask you, please, to reconsider? -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).