From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: phillip.lord@russet.org.uk Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Using unmaintained plugins Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2021 19:23:04 +0100 Message-ID: <23b978841cb0a746f273facf79db7ef3@russet.org.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="23543"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" User-Agent: Roundcube Webmail/1.4.11 Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org To: Bithov Vinu Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Sun Apr 18 20:24:45 2021 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 1lYC68-0005zs-Mf for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org; Sun, 18 Apr 2021 20:24:44 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:37352 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1lYC67-0002Zl-OG for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org; Sun, 18 Apr 2021 14:24:43 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:58346) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1lYC5K-0002YO-59 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sun, 18 Apr 2021 14:23:54 -0400 Original-Received: from cloud103.planethippo.com ([78.129.138.110]:52534) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1lYC5F-0007Db-2Z for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sun, 18 Apr 2021 14:23:53 -0400 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=russet.org.uk; s=default; h=Content-Transfer-Encoding:Content-Type: Message-ID:Subject:Cc:To:From:Date:MIME-Version:Sender:Reply-To:Content-ID: Content-Description:Resent-Date:Resent-From:Resent-Sender:Resent-To:Resent-Cc :Resent-Message-ID:In-Reply-To:References:List-Id:List-Help:List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe:List-Post:List-Owner:List-Archive; bh=bpXOcnxJysBbyzfN5U9HCHsriZQ48PF8y3emEqs83PQ=; b=bPbisI1k1adkJtz2Tr825rWZ49 IyLJY+22qpGReDkMcqh2+V+FU8gtdDwN95Y6gjhT14XT++RXXslBiTLQZsAHlrhozhgoS21erumwz fXEER/Cwn5Owlmp8F1GSVt6rARWh0V9Uw8mepRBfgXmohBv1TYny5IZ8AZG/6GTtHl+CtQL4uZN2H uAJrzm8lIYTHIyiRMWhk1gav1BIgMMzAXleAdnPmVNMo8+WjxVOlCMY4hPFrvK5zXOYbyhLos/EGB 8f1EoHkWlGFDncHBYlsrbAh6hfBvLm1mcO06Xya06nCqcCDtse4stKbcX+rhK5oLhrIBEt7kdgC5V hl9Da4sA==; Original-Received: from [::1] (port=49382 helo=cloud103.planethippo.com) by cloud103.planethippo.com with esmtpa (Exim 4.94) (envelope-from ) id 1lYC4W-005zMa-HU; Sun, 18 Apr 2021 19:23:04 +0100 X-Sender: phillip.lord@russet.org.uk X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - cloud103.planethippo.com X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - gnu.org X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [47 12] / [47 12] X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - russet.org.uk X-Get-Message-Sender-Via: cloud103.planethippo.com: authenticated_id: phillip.lord@russet.org.uk X-Authenticated-Sender: cloud103.planethippo.com: phillip.lord@russet.org.uk Received-SPF: none client-ip=78.129.138.110; envelope-from=phillip.lord@russet.org.uk; helo=cloud103.planethippo.com X-Spam_score_int: -20 X-Spam_score: -2.1 X-Spam_bar: -- X-Spam_report: (-2.1 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, DKIM_SIGNED=0.1, DKIM_VALID=-0.1, DKIM_VALID_AU=-0.1, DKIM_VALID_EF=-0.1, SPF_HELO_NONE=0.001, SPF_NONE=0.001 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 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:129041 Archived-At: org-drill is erratically maintained I think rather than unmaintained: I used it fairly intensely for a period, now I don't need it as much and it's rather fallen down my todo list. Mostly Emacs packages will work for a fairly long time, even without maintenance -- some of my packages have not been updated in a decade, because they still work. The main issue with org-drill specifically is that it depends on org-mode and that does perhaps change a bit more frequently. Some Emacs packages do eventually fade away into the ether and that's always a risk. Not sure whether it will happen with org-drill of course. No one else has stepped up to take the maintainership and I may or may not get around to it. On 2021-04-18 10:35, Bithov Vinu wrote: > Hi, > > I recently began to use Emacs org-drill (see: > https://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/org-drill.html) in Emacs which is > an > unmaintained Emacs package for scheduling and reviewing flashcards > using a spaced > repetition algorithm. There > is a > link on the aforementioned URL that goes to another gitlab url which > hasn't > been updated in over a year, so I found a legacy version (one of the > last > versions written by Paul Sexton, the original author, before it being > handed over to Phil Lord). Phil Lord's version is the currently > unmaintained version on gitlab, I just found the "org-drill" module and > it's requirement (org-learn.el) through some digging. There are some > other > plugins that do the same thing as org-drill (pamparam, org-fc come to > mind) > but none of these are as slick and efficient (in terms of creating and > reviewing cards) as org-drill. > > My question is, is there any concern over using a plugin that is > unmaintained? If it was written in something like C, I could rest > assured > that the C standard is not going to change so drastically in the > foreseeable future that I won't be able to compile it, but I'm lost in > this > regard with Emacs and Emacs Lisp. Obviously, Emacs isn't going away > anytime > soon, but should I have concerns > that a change in Emacs Lisp cripples org-drill (or any other plugins I > use)? Should I be worried about a dependency of org-drill becoming > unmaintained or losing support in a newer version of Emacs? Org-drill > is > pretty much a completed project (it's a flashcard plugin, so security > patches/updates aren't really necessary) because it seems to be a > write-once-and-forget-about-it thing, but I just wanted to be sure. > > Thanks, > ~~~