From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: wsnyder@wsnyder.org (Wilson Snyder) Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Comment in verilog-mode.el about supported versions Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2016 09:32:25 -0500 Message-ID: <7qzijs6lc6.fsf@emma.svaha.wsnyder.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1482157996 13679 195.159.176.226 (19 Dec 2016 14:33:16 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2016 14:33:16 +0000 (UTC) Cc: , kaushal.modi@gmail.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org, tino.calancha@gmail.com, npostavs@users.sourceforge.net To: Tino Calancha Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Dec 19 15:33:08 2016 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@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 1cIyzy-0002El-Ej for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 19 Dec 2016 15:33:06 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:45944 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cIz02-00033y-Qn for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 19 Dec 2016 09:33:10 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:53948) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cIyzR-00030B-An for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 19 Dec 2016 09:32:34 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cIyzL-0006f9-W6 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 19 Dec 2016 09:32:33 -0500 Original-Received: from vpo3.wsnyder.org ([173.230.154.183]:36683 helo=wsnyder.org) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cIyzL-0006eu-R6 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 19 Dec 2016 09:32:27 -0500 X-ssh-sendmail: true X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] [fuzzy] X-Received-From: 173.230.154.183 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:210634 Archived-At: >On Mon, 19 Dec 2016, Wilson Snyder wrote: > >> >>>> On Mon, Dec 19, 2016, 5:19 PM Tino Calancha wrote: >>>>> >>>>> in the comentary of >>>>> lisp/progmodes/verilog-mode.el >>>>> you can find following comment: >>>>> ;; This code supports Emacs 21.1 and later >>>>> ;; And XEmacs 21.1 and later >>>>> ;; Please do not make changes that break Emacs 21. Thanks! >>>>> >>>>> I could understand this comment in a version of this file >>>>> elsewhere, e.g. ELPA, but not in the built-in version in Emacs. >>>>> Why is this comment needed? >>>>> Is it OK to drop from the master branch this kind of comments? >> >> Please retain this, this entire file is identical with that >> used on other versions of Emacs. It would be otherwise >> be nearly impossible to manage diverging files. >Sorry, I don't understand why it should be difficult or what makes more >difficult to handle this file that, for instance tramp or cc-mode. > >Wouldn't it better to keep one verilog-mode.el version in ELPA >fully compatible with Emacs-21? >And let the file in the master branch to benefit of all that >has come since Emacs-21? > >I also notice that the file is very large (> 14 klines). >Maybe it would be easier to maintain if the file is split in 4-5 files. Verilog-mode is a bit unique. It's not just a programming mode that is used inside Emacs, but a computer aided design tool that extends the Verilog language, relied on in most every chip design company, and often run as a standalone tool from Emacs batch. Thus there are often important bugs which need to be fixed back into what would otherwise be considered "old" Emacs versions. cc-mode and like doesn't have this issue. Also because of this, verilog-mode.el is often part of the source code control system of design environments, which need to run regardless that different users and systems may have different Emacs versions installed. Users often upgrade verilog-mode.el themselves, and so having a single file, that they can easily install and know will work, no matter their version of Emacs, is critical. Perhaps this path is more development work (though due to version maintenance effort I'd argue that). But, I don't see any way in which splitting versions nor splitting files would help the users. Anyhow, regardless of these choices, new Emacs features are made available. By no means is the least common denominator all that is supported. -Wilson