Re: Installing cond* in core

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2024 23:33:52 +0000
> Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org
> From: Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>
> 
> Can you further confirm that there will be no technical advantages given
> to pcase over cond*?

This remains to be seen.  Only actual usage of cond* and experience we
gain from that will allow us to realize the relative merits and
demerits of each one of the macros.

> In particular, that condstar.el will be in lisp/emacs-lisp

That's probably a good place, yes.

> and that it will be available from early mid-bootstrap onwards, just
> as pcase is?

Only if really needed.  I object in general to preloading anything
that is not actually needed, and for that reason I will keep an eye on
uses of cond* in preloaded files, with the purpose of avoiding that as
much as possible, so that we don't have to preload another package
unless we must.

> On this point, it's worth noting that pcase was silently slipped into
> Emacs in the dead of night without any public discussion, and was then
> widely proliferated through working code, again without discussion.

Please drop this attitude: it is not useful.  In Emacs development,
stuff is routinely "slipped into Emacs in the dead of the night
without any public discussion", for better and for worse.  I'm sure
that if you examine the logs of your own changes, you will see many
examples of that; I know I see that in mine and in most other's.
E.g., I installed a user-facing change just yesterday without asking
anyone's opinion.  This is how Emacs is developed for decades, and we
should by now realize that this is our strength, although it does have
known downsides.  The stuff that goes into the repository is sent to a
special mailing list, so people who want to be aware of things
"slipping in the dead of night" have ample opportunity to pay
attention and holler.