Re: Moving files from lisp/gnus/ to lisp/net/?

[Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com>]

Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org> writes:

> On Fri, Oct 15, 2004 at 09:26:59PM +0200, Simon Josefsson wrote:
>> People seem to fear using some files in gnus/ because they think the
>> files might end up loading all of Gnus.  I believe moving some of the
>> self contained files in Gnus elsewhere would be good.  This would make
>> it clear that they aren't an intrinsic part of Gnus.
>
> Offhand I think it's a great idea, but a few twists come to mind:
>
>   * What will these file's status in "upstream" Gnus be?  Gnus tries to be
>     compatible with older emacs versions, so it seems like you can't just
>     remove them from the Gnus distribution, but for this "separation" to have
>     any real effect for Gnus developers, it would seem that they shouldn't be
>     kept in their current location.

Gnus need them to work.  Perhaps writing a README.MAINTAINER file for
Gnus, that the files should not be modified considerably without
talking to the Emacs maintainers is sufficient?

Part of this effort is also to reduce the number of gratuitous changes
to the files.  The files are supposed to be stable.  If people have to
coordinate the patches, perhaps the quality of the patches that are
added will be higher.  Not that low quality patches has been a
problem, though.

>   * As discussed in another thread, Richard has said that files which are not
>     under lisp/gnus/, and not "obviously" Gnus-related, should have a
>     slightly different status with respect to the Gnus developers -- he
>     doesn't want arbitrary changes made to them without more discussion
>     (whereas with files under lisp/gnus/, you have a freer hand).

Personally, I don't think this is a problem for the files I mentioned.
What do other Gnus developers think?

I hope that I am speaking for most Gnus developers when I say that we
try to make these files standalone from Gnus, and that we encourage
non-Gnus projects to use them.  It seems that we could be more
successful with this, and giving up some control of the files and
moving the into Emacs might achieve that.

If Gnus developers think this is a bad idea, just say the word and
I'll stop.  This merging effort was initiated because I perceived that
this would help achieve the goals I felt were implicit on the Gnus
list.

> Moving in the repository is _very_ bad.  Definitely just "remove + add"; you
> can include the old location in the CVS log for users to follow.

Agreed.