From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Alan Mackenzie Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel,gmane.emacs.pretest.bugs Subject: Re: Nit-picking Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 09:35:59 +0000 Message-ID: <20080412093559.GC1781@muc.de> References: <003801c89a85$fcd95ad0$c2b22382@us.oracle.com> <008d01c89b26$8aacebb0$c2b22382@us.oracle.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1207992048 15014 80.91.229.12 (12 Apr 2008 09:20:48 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 09:20:48 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org, rms@gnu.org To: Eli Zaretskii Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Apr 12 11:21:21 2008 connect(): Connection refused Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1JkbvD-00029h-Ip for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:21:19 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1JkbuY-0002GM-Tn for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 12 Apr 2008 05:20:39 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1JkbtK-0001Jh-5r for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 12 Apr 2008 05:19:22 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1JkbtF-0001F3-BG for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 12 Apr 2008 05:19:21 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1JkbtF-0001El-33 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 12 Apr 2008 05:19:17 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([140.186.70.10]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1JkbtF-0003rf-4u for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 12 Apr 2008 05:19:17 -0400 Original-Received: from mail.gnu.org ([199.232.76.166] helo=mx10.gnu.org) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.67) (envelope-from ) id 1JkbtE-0005nY-Hj for emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org; Sat, 12 Apr 2008 05:19:16 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1Jkbt7-0003pB-2f for emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org; Sat, 12 Apr 2008 05:19:16 -0400 Original-Received: from colin.muc.de ([193.149.48.1] helo=mail.muc.de) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1Jkbt6-0003oU-DG for emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org; Sat, 12 Apr 2008 05:19:08 -0400 Original-Received: (qmail 70743 invoked by uid 3782); 12 Apr 2008 09:19:02 -0000 Original-Received: from acm.muc.de (p57AF68F0.dip.t-dialin.net [87.175.104.240]) by colin2.muc.de (tmda-ofmipd) with ESMTP; Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:19:00 +0200 Original-Received: (qmail 3752 invoked by uid 1000); 12 Apr 2008 09:35:59 -0000 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.9i X-Delivery-Agent: TMDA/1.1.5 (Fettercairn) X-Primary-Address: acm@muc.de X-detected-kernel: by monty-python.gnu.org: FreeBSD 4.6-4.9 X-detected-kernel: by monty-python.gnu.org: Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:95026 gmane.emacs.pretest.bugs:21987 Archived-At: Hi, Eli! On Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 11:40:13AM +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote: > > From: Richard Stallman > > That is true, but it is also true that if we keep reopening > > questions decided long ago, we will make our lives very difficult > > and probably make little progress. We have to leave well enough > > alone for the old features most of the time, in order to have time > > to add the new features we know we want. > Amen. > Perhaps it's just me, but there appear to be too many threads on this > list that I need to skip entirely, due to their endless discussions of > issues of miniscule importance. OTOH, I don't remember any > discussions of important new features for quite some time. It almost > looks like no important development is going on. Down at CC Mode, I receive a constant trickle of "little" bugs, things that go wrong in unusual (but perfectly reasonable) source code. Languages like C++ and Java (and even C itself) are astonishingly complicated. In the medium future, I'll be concentrating on fixing long-standing, difficult bugs: font locking going wrong in the middle of a long struct declaration (for lack of syntactic context); inadequate handling of template/generic bracketing (by < and >) in C++/Java. Also, somewhat easier, things like making C-M-a go to the beginning of the real function/class in C++, not the enclosing outermost class or namespace; and somebody asked me for a command to switch between C-style (/* .. */) and C++-style (// .... \n) comments. :-) I've got vague ideas for adding "decluttering" commands: commands to render things like casts and "frivolous compound statements" (where a brace block contains only a single statement) invisible. These are a real eyesore in certain types of proprietary source code. :-( And there's continual refactoring to be done - software this complicated, more than a decade old, doesn't stay cleanly implemented all by itself. All in all, nothing very exciting or earth shattering - but important, nevertheless. -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).