Re: Things I would like to be added after the release

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

<klaus.berndl@sdm.de> writes:

> But here is (4): Currently ECB contains a lot of compatibility-code
> so ECB runs as best as possible with Emacs and XEmacs... this is a
> goal of ECB and should remain as a goal. I doubt Richard wants to
> have XEmacs- compatibility-code in the ECB integrated in the
> Emacs-trunc ;-)

Yes and no.  The usual approach here is where a package is being
actively maintained upstream to let the maintainers do their job: the
important thing is that those working on the package are not hampered.
XEmacs is, after all, free software.  When a package is basically only
maintained inside of Emacs CVS and no-one has a good grip on whether
the XEmacs compatibility code actually works or fulfills a purpose, at
some point of time it can be sanest to just rip it out.

However, for the sake of readability, it may be a good idea to factor
out functions differing among Emacsen and put them into files of their
own.  In this case it may be possible to leave out the XEmacs specific
compatibility file from the Emacs CVS, and possibly also omit the test
and load for it (with the file missing, it becomes pointless).  In
that manner, stuff can be developed more or less cleanly.

What I actually consider more of a problem is backwards compatibility:
if you have a large amount of advice, one wants to boil this down into
core functionality placed into Emacs.  This "boiling down" may be hard
to do when at the same time the goal to maintain a version working
with older Emacs variants (Emacs 22, most likely) remains a priority.

-- 
David Kastrup