Re: Windows 9X compatibility

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2010 13:27:03 -0600
> From: Christoph <cschol2112@googlemail.com>
> CC: emacs-devel@gnu.org
> 
> You are right. I have not experienced this pain myself, but I have read 
> the source. I see the function "is_windows_9x()" and where it is being 
> used

is_windows_9x is a 12-line function whose all calls but the very first
one just return the value of a static variable.

> and other comments like "Visual Studio 6 cannot do this", "MSVC's 
> stat doesnt support UNC and has other bugs" which led to code being 
> added to eliminate these deficiencies and support old OSs like Win9x or 
> old compilers like MSVC 6.

The latter problem has nothing to do with old compilers: the Windows
implementation of `stat' leaves a lot to be desired, for a
Posix-minded program such as Emacs.  Which is why Emacs has its own
version of `stat' that doesn't rely on the one supplied by Microsoft.
The problem with `stat' exists on all versions of Windows, not just on
Windows 9X.

> I am just wondering, if this really needs to be there and if anybody 
> ever looks into replacing these functions with native Windows code in 
> the latest version of their development tool chains. If it makes the 
> code cleaner and less prone to breaking with added features or bugs, 
> wouldn't that be worth it?

Maybe.  But it's hard to talk about this on this general level.
Specific suggestions to remove old compatibility code are welcome.

> Also, I am not saying the guy looking into something that couldn't be 
> myself. In fact, I guess the whole discussion was prompted by me trying 
> to find a way to contribute. Maybe I should have picked a less 
> controversial subject matter. ;)

Your contributions, past and future, are welcome.  Thanks.