patn-insert.el requires cl which is deprecated

patn-insert.el requires cl which is deprecated

[Raymond Zeitler via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor]

 Does anyone else use patn-insert.el by Bard Bloom of Cornell Univ. CS Dept.?
I've been using it sporadically for a couple of decades under Emacs 25.2.1 and earlier.  It was published in the comp.emacs Usenet group in 1990 or so.  Google has deemed that group unsafe, so it's not accessible.
Now that I'm upgrading to Emacs 28, I find that it won't load because it requires cl, which is deprecated.
My options seem to be:1. Find out if anyone has updated it to work under Emacs 27+ (in progress)2. Attempt to update it to use cl-lib myself (unlikely)3. Contact the author (deferred)4. Keep my Emacs 25.2.1 installed just so that I can use the functions in patn-insert
Comments?
- Ray

Re: patn-insert.el requires cl which is deprecated

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2023 17:45:29 +0000 (UTC)
> From:  Raymond Zeitler via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor <help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
> 
>  Does anyone else use patn-insert.el by Bard Bloom of Cornell Univ. CS Dept.?
> I've been using it sporadically for a couple of decades under Emacs 25.2.1 and earlier.  It was published in the comp.emacs Usenet group in 1990 or so.  Google has deemed that group unsafe, so it's not accessible.
> Now that I'm upgrading to Emacs 28, I find that it won't load because it requires cl, which is deprecated.
> My options seem to be:1. Find out if anyone has updated it to work under Emacs 27+ (in progress)2. Attempt to update it to use cl-lib myself (unlikely)3. Contact the author (deferred)4. Keep my Emacs 25.2.1 installed just so that I can use the functions in patn-insert
> Comments?

Updating it to use cl-lib should be easy: basically, for each symbol
FOO that came from cl, replace FOO with cl-FOO.

Re: patn-insert.el requires cl which is deprecated

[Stefan Monnier via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor]

> Now that I'm upgrading to Emacs 28, I find that it won't load because it
> requires cl, which is deprecated.

Hmm... not quite: deprecated just means that we recommend you don't
use it.  But it's still there are still works.  So the "don't load" is
not explained/caused by the deprecation.


        Stefan

Re: patn-insert.el requires cl which is deprecated

[Stefan Monnier via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor]

> My options seem to be:1. Find out if anyone has updated it to work under
> Emacs 27+ (in progress)2. Attempt to update it to use cl-lib myself
> (unlikely)3. Contact the author (deferred)4. Keep my Emacs 25.2.1 installed
> just so that I can use the functions in patn-insert

Feel free to ask for more specific help (e.g. post actual error
messages, ideally with backtraces).  I also recommend you byte-compile
the file (the byte-compiler should give you useful messages, and if
they're not useful to you, post them here, other people can interpret
them for you).


        Stefan

Re: patn-insert.el requires cl which is deprecated

[Stefan Monnier via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor]

>> My options seem to be:1. Find out if anyone has updated it to work under
>> Emacs 27+ (in progress)2. Attempt to update it to use cl-lib myself
>> (unlikely)3. Contact the author (deferred)4. Keep my Emacs 25.2.1 installed
>> just so that I can use the functions in patn-insert
>
> Feel free to ask for more specific help (e.g. post actual error
> messages, ideally with backtraces).  I also recommend you byte-compile
> the file (the byte-compiler should give you useful messages, and if
> they're not useful to you, post them here, other people can interpret
> them for you).

BTW, it's probably best to byte-compile it with (one of) the last
version of Emacs with which it still works (it might give you hints
about uses of obsolete functionality).


        Stefan

Re: patn-insert.el requires cl which is deprecated

[Raymond Zeitler via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor]

  On March 4 Stefan Monnier wrote:
> it's probably best to byte-compile it with (one of) the last> version of Emacs with which it still works (it might give you hints> about uses of obsolete functionality).
Although it works, it does not compile.  The compiler gives a warningabout a macro and then actually reports an error for the firstfunction that uses the macro.  Included below are the compiler messageand the macro.
Compiling file c:/Users/Public/Programs/emacs-25.2-x86_64/site-lisp/patn-insert.el at Sun Mar 12 16:27:43 2023patn-insert.el:56:1:Warning: cl package required at runtime
In for-var-low-high:patn-insert.el:58:48:Warning: '(\` (let ((((\, var)) ((\, low))) (((\,    high-save)) ((\, high)))) (while (<= ((\, var)) ((\, high-save))) ((\,@    body)) (incf ((\, var))))))' is a malformed functionpatn-insert.el:72:1:Error: Invalid function: (\` (let ((((\, var)) ((\, low))) (((\, high-save)) ((\, high)))) (while (<= ((\, var)) ((\, high-save))) ((\,@ body)) (incf ((\, var))))))
(defmacro for-var-low-high (var low high &rest body)  "For VAR from LOW to HIGH do BODY.  LOW and HIGH are evaluatedonce each.  No error checking -- barfs if either isn't a number.VAR is let-bound."  (let ((high-save (gensym)))    (`     (let (( (, var) (, low))           ( (, high-save) (, high))           )       (while (<= (, var) (, high-save))         (,@ body)         (incf (, var))         )))))

Re: patn-insert.el requires cl which is deprecated

[Michael Heerdegen]

Raymond Zeitler via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor
<help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org> writes:

> In for-var-low-high:patn-insert.el:58:48:Warning: '(\` (let ((((\,
> [...]

Looks like this macro is using old-style backquotes?  Support for these
had been removed in 28.1.

If this is the cause, AFAIK you would have to rewrite the backquote uses
like (` X) ==> `X, likewise for , and ,@ (I guess, I never had to deal
with old-style backquotes).

Michael.

Re: patn-insert.el requires cl which is deprecated

[Emanuel Berg]

Michael Heerdegen wrote:

> If this is the cause, AFAIK you would have to rewrite the
> backquote uses like (` X) ==> `X

Or use `backquote', e.g., (backquote x) ==> x, if/when that's
more convenient.

> likewise for , and ,@ (I guess, I never had to deal with
> old-style backquotes).

Those don't have a name, but are described well, in the
docstring for `backquote'. They were functions or macros as
well once, not just `quote' and backquote?

Now they should be just syntax for the backquote to
parse, right?

Here's a QUOTE I like BTW:

  Argument STRUCTURE describes a template to build.

Interesting ...

-- 
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal

Re: patn-insert.el requires cl which is deprecated

[Michael Heerdegen]

Emanuel Berg <incal@dataswamp.org> writes:

> Those don't have a name, but are described well, in the
> docstring for `backquote'. They were functions or macros as
> well once, not just `quote' and backquote?

Dunno (I guess not).  I think what changed is the reader.

Michael.