On Mon, Apr 04 2005, Lute Kamstra wrote:

> Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> writes:
>> Wouldn't it be better to put (require 'parse-time) at the beginning of
>> the file instead of inside `message-make-date'?
>
> message-make-date is the only function in message.el that uses
> parse-time, so it's best to put the require there.  If you change
> message-make-date so that it no longer uses parse-time, you will
> probably notice the require and remove it.  Had you put require at the
> beginning of the file, you would most likely forget this.  Putting a
> require at the beginning of a file is useful if the file uses a
> particular feature a lot.

Okay, I agree.  Putting it at the beginning of a file additionally
avoids some "reference to free variable" warnings.  The following
patch[1] would avoid them too.  (autoload 'parse-time-string ...)
should be there for the standalone Gnus which is supposed to work with
older Emacs versions.