From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: [External] : A peek to the other side Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2022 20:43:02 +0200 Message-ID: <83czjeu4i1.fsf@gnu.org> References: Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="40004"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Tue Feb 22 19:44:43 2022 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@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 1nMa9T-000ADb-Dl for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org; Tue, 22 Feb 2022 19:44:43 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:36550 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1nMa9R-0006Fs-SB for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org; Tue, 22 Feb 2022 13:44:41 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([209.51.188.92]:33344) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1nMa7m-0006Cm-Dx for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 22 Feb 2022 13:42:58 -0500 Original-Received: from [2001:470:142:3::e] (port=56142 helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1nMa7m-00078L-2r for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 22 Feb 2022 13:42:58 -0500 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gnu.org; s=fencepost-gnu-org; h=References:Subject:In-Reply-To:To:From:Date: mime-version; bh=vFOUUcXgN4am4vK6B53ajFbahJY5yclIucKFprNWTNw=; b=TSN4FHsPUDMe LIxm1XlunF7phUWUen8VjFLCPBXBPIVWOOsp8ovRoK0rn+4LkTTz6gVWM8hlxiGueDNUnY9luzr1c GOCrF3cWxuBxmK1W08qDwrXOI5HQqwd17xegnucplMnZbrrzNpUxZKDpIUm6sd4PQPYsuEJvbYQK7 +DSLojBvBLiVXfj5XbYMRkiz4KkQDxN2DK0Eo/XL2G2GQzDh7v4MdGvVcZxj1hoibT1ocvUbHivAb Cbt8W/r703AcNdRWztNq4BSM/beXBHBABwaS6maArDXlRRGEllmb9jZuj7gOuytYdPp8RffTi+F6l k5Y7+uUOefwLlSiuKblZrQ==; Original-Received: from [87.69.77.57] (port=4547 helo=home-c4e4a596f7) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtpsa (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1nMa7i-0005iW-LQ for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 22 Feb 2022 13:42:55 -0500 In-Reply-To: (message from Drew Adams on Tue, 22 Feb 2022 18:25:44 +0000) X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "help-gnu-emacs" Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.help:136151 Archived-At: > From: Drew Adams > Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2022 18:25:44 +0000 > Cc: "'Help-Gnu-Emacs \(help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org\)'" > > At the very least, every use of `--' should have an > easily findable comment or doc, explaining what it's > about - why the labeler labeled it so. A guess is > that if that guideline were adopted there'd be a lot > less gratuitous use (misuse) of `--'. And updating > out-of-date `--' would be less problematic. Today, > it's an irresponsible, easy "label `--' willy nilly, > and forget about it." You make it sound like we are too lazy to do this stuff, so we use a cop-out. Nothing is farther from the truth. The free time we have to work on Emacs is used to its last second. There's only so much one can do in a given time, and it is therefore wise to prioritize the jobs and do the more important ones first. Abundantly documenting APIs we consider to be internal, not-for-use, subject-to-change-without-notice is way down the priority list, that's all. So we keep the documentation of those to the absolute minimum: by using the "--" indication, and we expect Emacs programmers to trust us on that. Anything else would simply be a case of bad judgment and misuse of the time we have to contribute.