From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: RCS, again: another removed functionality: undo last-checkin Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:07:08 +0300 Message-ID: <83a8s2agar.fsf@gnu.org> References: <87oagx6tzz.fsf@mat.ucm.es> <55FF4026.2050004@yandex.ru> <83si68nu4i.fsf@gnu.org> <87eghsfd3m.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> <83k2rknr2c.fsf@gnu.org> <87mvwellmg.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> <56023A6C.3020302@yandex.ru> <5602BE3E.1050009@yandex.ru> <5602C4DE.8020105@yandex.ru> <560B4899.2070708@yandex.ru> <83y4fobegc.fsf@gnu.org> <560BC73C.4040403@yandex.ru> <83d1x0atb2.fsf@gnu.org> <560C9EDA.3040207@yandex.ru> <83vbar9hv3.fsf@gnu.org> <560D2CFD.50702@yandex.ru> Reply-To: Eli Zaretskii NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1443716168 23051 80.91.229.3 (1 Oct 2015 16:16:08 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2015 16:16:08 +0000 (UTC) Cc: stephen@xemacs.org, dak@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org, monnier@iro.umontreal.ca, rms@gnu.org To: Dmitry Gutov Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Oct 01 18:15:59 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1ZhgWV-0007ti-7E for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 01 Oct 2015 18:15:59 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:52700 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZhgWU-0002A1-QH for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 01 Oct 2015 12:15:58 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:58408) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Zhda4-0002qd-K1 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 01 Oct 2015 09:07:29 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Zhda3-000056-Kb for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 01 Oct 2015 09:07:28 -0400 Original-Received: from mtaout20.012.net.il ([80.179.55.166]:40865) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZhdZx-0008UY-8W; Thu, 01 Oct 2015 09:07:21 -0400 Original-Received: from conversion-daemon.a-mtaout20.012.net.il by a-mtaout20.012.net.il (HyperSendmail v2007.08) id <0NVJ00200LMQ7900@a-mtaout20.012.net.il>; Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:07:19 +0300 (IDT) Original-Received: from HOME-C4E4A596F7 ([84.94.185.246]) by a-mtaout20.012.net.il (HyperSendmail v2007.08) with ESMTPA id <0NVJ002SSLS64G10@a-mtaout20.012.net.il>; Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:07:18 +0300 (IDT) In-reply-to: <560D2CFD.50702@yandex.ru> X-012-Sender: halo1@inter.net.il X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Solaris 10 X-Received-From: 80.179.55.166 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 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-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:190557 Archived-At: > Cc: monnier@iro.umontreal.ca, rms@gnu.org, stephen@xemacs.org, dak@gnu.org, > emacs-devel@gnu.org > From: Dmitry Gutov > Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2015 15:54:21 +0300 > > The term "makes sense" usually doesn't take into account backward > compatibility. > > If it did, your agreement with "we should be able to drop features that > don't make sense" is a no-op, because any existing feature would, by > definition, make sense. Right? No. Existing features might make no sense if (a) they didn't make sense when introduced (it happens!), or (b) if the reason for their existence is no longer valid, like a program that is no longer available, or operation that is impossible with today's platforms, or so clearly unused that there's no doubt it could be still useful to anyone. Breaking backward compatibility is about the worst crime package maintainers could commit, in my opinion. (I know it's not shared by many of the others.) It makes veteran users of a package feel like second-class citizens whose needs and workflows can be disregarded all too easily.