From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Emanuel Berg Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Compiling Emacs from Source Date: Wed, 08 Nov 2017 20:21:42 +0100 Message-ID: <864lq4a855.fsf@zoho.com> References: <87d14w4byu.fsf@robertthorpeconsulting.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1510169152 17232 195.159.176.226 (8 Nov 2017 19:25:52 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2017 19:25:52 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.4 (gnu/linux) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Nov 08 20:25:48 2017 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1eCVyr-0004AA-8o for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 08 Nov 2017 20:25:45 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:33612 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eCVyy-00022e-87 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 08 Nov 2017 14:25:52 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:41204) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eCVvD-0008QM-E7 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Nov 2017 14:22:00 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eCVv8-0001hX-GS for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Nov 2017 14:21:59 -0500 Original-Received: from [195.159.176.226] (port=37975 helo=blaine.gmane.org) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eCVv8-0001gx-96 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Nov 2017 14:21:54 -0500 Original-Received: from list by blaine.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1eCVuw-0003fC-Ng for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Nov 2017 20:21:42 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Mail-Followup-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-Lines: 57 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org Mail-Copies-To: never Cancel-Lock: sha1:1vKyLmN4IRWaWzyg7PKNFtMN0K4= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] [fuzzy] X-Received-From: 195.159.176.226 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 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.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "help-gnu-emacs" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:114817 Archived-At: Dan Mack wrote: > My two cents [...] YMMV If that's your two cents, one sure gets curious whatever gold bullions must be in your family safe... Indeed, compiling from source isn't difficult. The reason it is an elite/hacker hangup isn't because of the level of difficulty, rather the perfectionist/OCB approach. And, some people actually benefit from it as well :) In general, compiling an individual piece of software isn't difficult. The package manager and their interfaces are 1) a shorthand for doing it with less effort and with a uniform interface, which (both) are always welcome; and, more importantly 2) handle the complexity that rises when all those software pieces hook together in different ways - different versions, the compile order, circular dependencies, and what have you. The complexity itself isn't difficult to understand either. Just try to write any piece of software, say a small Elisp file that does some variation of what is already there. OK, so you write that. "Sweet, I'll just put it on my lamer web pile so Joe, Fritz, and Ivan Hackers all over the world can use it." Only it isn't completely standalone as it needs a one-liner which you have in another file which has nothing to do with the first file! So you factor it out to a library. Now this breaks both files for anyone not having that library - yeah, "library", like 2-3 lines of codes! So you put in a comment "; hey guys, you need to get this as well" so already an all-but trivial project starts to tangle up. Guess what with huge software systems developed for half a century (soon). So the complexity is in one sense similar to compiler optimization. Recurrent values are factored out, unused variables dropped - so easy, an idiot can do it. Or at least understand it. But a computer can do it in close to zero time and it doesn't matter how big the project gets, the result will be just as good as those simple cases are applied again and again... -- underground experts united http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573