From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Glenn Morris Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: RFC - cleaning up /etc Date: Thu, 09 Jan 2014 14:50:56 -0500 Message-ID: References: <20140109140226.57D6C38085A@snark.thyrsus.com> <20140109174249.GA10171@thyrsus.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1389297056 23338 80.91.229.3 (9 Jan 2014 19:50:56 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2014 19:50:56 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Emacs developers To: esr@thyrsus.com Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Jan 09 20:51:02 2014 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1W1Ld8-0001YW-BD for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 09 Jan 2014 20:51:02 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:53856 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1W1Ld7-0005LX-UD for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 09 Jan 2014 14:51:01 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:45596) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1W1Ld4-0005LF-EY for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 09 Jan 2014 14:50:59 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1W1Ld3-0000eS-DC for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 09 Jan 2014 14:50:58 -0500 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:41073) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1W1Ld3-0000eO-AD for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 09 Jan 2014 14:50:57 -0500 Original-Received: from rgm by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1W1Ld2-00082K-OY; Thu, 09 Jan 2014 14:50:56 -0500 X-Spook: Axis of Evil genetic bemd Sundevil Becker Waco, Texas X-Ran: ?X"p*oRqP\c@r,IY/%B%W*Js<9.)Om8aZWZIP=Osaifp'0'eV^xC[DquFDSCsxD[z-B>1) X-Hue: white X-Attribution: GM In-Reply-To: <20140109174249.GA10171@thyrsus.com> (Eric S. Raymond's message of "Thu, 9 Jan 2014 12:42:49 -0500") User-Agent: Gnus (www.gnus.org), GNU Emacs (www.gnu.org/software/emacs/) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Error: Malformed IPv6 address (bad octet value). X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 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-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:167969 Archived-At: "Eric S. Raymond" wrote: >> Does not seem like a good idea to me. > > That's not a useful response unless accompanied by an explanation. It seems necessary to respond quickly these days. Anything in etc/ that is important is accessed via Emacs commands/menus. M-x view-emacs-news, describe-no-warranty, describe-gnu-project, etc. Moving the file does nothing but break any external references that may exist. The only reason that files like ORDERS still exist is for historical reasons, in case of some external reference pointing to them. Anything in there that is not important (COOKIES etc) is frankly only there for sentimental historical reasons, because people will kick up a fuss if they get removed. Moving it eg to an etc/misc subdirectory is pointless IMO. And etc/jokes would just be leaden. And an entire new top-level directory is an awful idea. Basically, if a file is not pointless, there'll be an external reference to it somewhere. If it is pointless, it does not matter where it lives. So overall, better to leave alone IMO. And again: not during a feature freeze, please.