From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: master df8e705eb2 1/2: Don't refer to Emacs 24.3 or older in FAQ Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2022 09:34:28 +0300 Message-ID: <83a67q19fv.fsf@gnu.org> References: <83lerc2msb.fsf@gnu.org> <83a67r367m.fsf@gnu.org> Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="3697"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Stefan Kangas Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Sat Aug 27 08:39:05 2022 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@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 1oRpTD-0000oo-5R for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Sat, 27 Aug 2022 08:39:03 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:33144 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1oRpTB-0008Iv-FU for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Sat, 27 Aug 2022 02:39:01 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:33640) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1oRpOY-00077H-PC for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 27 Aug 2022 02:34:21 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::e]:40080) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1oRpOY-0002hL-5M; Sat, 27 Aug 2022 02:34:14 -0400 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gnu.org; s=fencepost-gnu-org; h=References:Subject:In-Reply-To:To:From:Date: mime-version; bh=CGHTgck6cDNwovW+7Pmh98Q2h7RWgk7ifrA9J+4eWuM=; b=lvi/wiEMnYKF 7tDrqdACguG/rCx5XESbSLXrwVW+QRe61TdVlRCIV/60QBelwKmVboTnGbfHxxLHBMB5yA50g+7na ZbF8CbMW55xufq5LpTAdtEBvHEEbdr0kH2NKGj0GJsA0BsKpLcRk6XHs1C+kG3Wesf/vHKFBbeDkn qTu3rVWdOcysO4W+uFH73kDggcVLqcP99N9VxR4xGtrFzphl2yuZavqK1JSWWi65FtYp1/WYhLezW 0H5rnUvEjYG8/M1ah9OfFnDMSWFX68xQA3u7J88L7m3NSJXIoUJXyuqGudPEg1PfWFmrgN+saKoLQ Y2b8USDoq/HhKcIPpVRSbQ==; Original-Received: from [87.69.77.57] (port=4553 helo=home-c4e4a596f7) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtpsa (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1oRpOX-0000gg-Hd; Sat, 27 Aug 2022 02:34:13 -0400 In-Reply-To: (message from Stefan Kangas on Fri, 26 Aug 2022 20:24:38 +0000) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 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-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:294175 Archived-At: > From: Stefan Kangas > Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2022 20:24:38 +0000 > Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org > > Eli Zaretskii writes: > > > What would be the reason to remove references to old Emacs versions > > from the FAQ? I'm thinking maybe we should simply exempt the FAQ from > > this process, which is, of course, perfectly valid for the other > > documentation. > > The purpose is mostly just to make the text easier to read, and to make > it not look outdated. For example, references to this new cool feature > in Emacs 21 is not likely to be very relevant or helpful in 2022. Saying that Emacs can do something since version XX.YY can never be outdated. And I don't think a reference to Emacs 21 can necessarily be irrelevant or unhelpful nowadays. It depends on what it says and how it says that. Thus, changing the wording to reflect the time that has passed is perfectly fine wherever it makes sense. But removing the text entirely just because it mentions an old version is IMO wrong for the FAQ. > But you may be right in general. Maybe we should really just delete the > absolutely antique stuff. Like what, for example? > > The FAQ is supposed to be a place where people could look for > > information like "since when does Emacs do this-and-that?". > > I was thinking also in terms of confused newcomers, who might be > overwhelmed by secondary details. (As in: "Wait, which version of Emacs > am I using? Is it Emacs 22 or newer?") The FAQ is not a mandatory reading for newcomers, so I'm not sure this use case is very important. And people nowadays know that the version of the program they run is supposed to be somewhere in Help->About. So I think we should only make sure the wording doesn't imply that, say, Emacs 212 happened yesterday, and otherwise keep the references to old versions in the FAQ.