From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Christopher Schmidt Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: XEmacs feature missing in GNU Emacs? Date: Wed, 1 May 2013 11:04:46 +0100 (BST) Message-ID: <878v3zdnhc@ch.ristopher.com> References: <87li82icgp.fsf@nowhere.org> <871u9t7te9.fsf@nowhere.org> <8761z51f4z.fsf_-_@bzg.ath.cx> <87sj29mftd@ch.ristopher.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1367402706 17700 80.91.229.3 (1 May 2013 10:05:06 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 1 May 2013 10:05:06 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed May 01 12:05:06 2013 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@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 1UXTuK-0007IC-OQ for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 01 May 2013 12:05:04 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:57006 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UXTuK-0005Dq-7n for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 01 May 2013 06:05:04 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:43604) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UXTu8-0005Cx-Vf for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 01 May 2013 06:04:55 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UXTu5-0006oo-D4 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 01 May 2013 06:04:52 -0400 Original-Received: from ristopher.com ([146.185.21.93]:44609 helo=saturn.ch.ristopher.com) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UXTu5-0006oU-4U for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 01 May 2013 06:04:49 -0400 Original-Received: by saturn.ch.ristopher.com (Postfix, from userid 0) id 65847201A3; Wed, 1 May 2013 11:04:46 +0100 (BST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=simple/simple; d=ch.ristopher.com; s=mail; t=1367402686; bh=eXweIamHL0u3fLshTV75GprkkbWNhiiOlwMobCSy7Jg=; h=From:To:Subject:In-Reply-To:Message-ID:References:MIME-Version: Content-Type:Date; b=aK4cBOcmNje7Gfa53ACuHZ2rmV+JdpTkXF5H1cQh87anFZs1e5xG13yGlPcZeUGEg fPNFVuRYqsSS8BixS3LKTZLG8KYCB4r1Nfaqy4SQMqjnlT+7Yo7a8AQpX/w67OdNQw K1UKv/HAwPEs4CmeBBnWY7ZjSuHKK4Je+ivFpVQw= In-Reply-To: (Steven Degutis's message of "Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:22:20 -0500") Mail-Followup-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.4.x X-Received-From: 146.185.21.93 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 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-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:90444 Archived-At: Steven Degutis writes: > Advantages such as...? To me, being an ordinary Emacs user, the most striking advantage is the separation of release cycles. GNU Emacs is a vivid ecosystem of different packages. The release distribution is a static snapshot. This is not exactly problematic to all these lisp packages which are mature and do not change much any more. It is problematic to those packages which still undergo development. Consider Org-Mode, for example. One is pretty much on its own in terms of community support and specific bug fixes if one uses the distribution bundled with GNU Emacs. Separate release cycles of core and packages and release new versions of packages when they are considered mature and stable - not when another core release of Emacs accidentally happens. This does not necessarily imply any user visible changes or massive changes to the development infrastructure. For starters, use the package.el magic to generate packages from the lisp/-tree at build-time. Create an ELPA branch which distributes emergency bug/security fixes and major releases of packages such as Gnus, Org-Mode or CEDET on top (!) of the regular distribution in the release tarball. Stephen wrote a retrospective assessment of XEmacs modularization here: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel/151146 I have been thinking about this idea for some time now. I really like it. I am convinced that this is a win for both users and developers. Are there any notable disadvantages? Christopher