From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Kastrup Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: new image library "requirements" Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:14:31 +0200 Message-ID: <86r6o8tcvc.fsf@lola.quinscape.zz> References: <87wsy3qw87.fsf@catnip.gol.com> <46761FA4.8090403@swipnet.se> <18038.8602.106679.989184@kahikatea.snap.net.nz> <86vedl1zrw.fsf@lola.quinscape.zz> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1182251685 16210 80.91.229.12 (19 Jun 2007 11:14:45 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 11:14:45 +0000 (UTC) Cc: nickrob@snap.net.nz, jan.h.d@swipnet.se, emacs-devel@gnu.org, miles@gnu.org To: rms@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Jun 19 13:14:43 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1I0bfV-0004Yi-SC for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:14:42 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1I0bfV-0002Q5-5P for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 19 Jun 2007 07:14:41 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1I0bfS-0002Py-Ft for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 19 Jun 2007 07:14:38 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1I0bfQ-0002Pk-3p for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 19 Jun 2007 07:14:37 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1I0bfP-0002Ph-U2 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 19 Jun 2007 07:14:35 -0400 Original-Received: from pc3.berlin.powerweb.de ([62.67.228.11]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1I0bfO-00049F-DU for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 19 Jun 2007 07:14:35 -0400 Original-Received: from quinscape.de (dslnet.212-29-44.ip210.dokom.de [212.29.44.210] (may be forged)) by pc3.berlin.powerweb.de (8.9.3p3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id NAA24633 for ; Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:14:29 +0200 X-Delivered-To: Original-Received: (qmail 19698 invoked from network); 19 Jun 2007 11:14:32 -0000 Original-Received: from unknown (HELO lola.quinscape.zz) ([10.0.3.43]) (envelope-sender ) by ns.quinscape.de (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for ; 19 Jun 2007 11:14:32 -0000 Original-Received: by lola.quinscape.zz (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 8B4578EA27; Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:14:32 +0200 (CEST) In-Reply-To: (Richard Stallman's message of "Tue\, 19 Jun 2007 06\:41\:07 -0400") User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/23.0.51 (gnu/linux) X-detected-kernel: Linux 2.4-2.6 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:73295 Archived-At: Richard Stallman writes: > > Yes, where does it all end? Emacs will build without alsa headers but > > presumably that leads to some loss of functionality (playing midi files, > > maybe?). Should configure throw an error when these aren't found? > > The answer to that question isn't a theoretical one. It is a matter > of how important a given feature is as a feature of Emacs. > > For instance, for sound: how important a problem is it that people > build Emacs and don't get sound, just because they didn't have the > right headers installed? On the other side, how big an > inconvenience is it to be pressured into installing the headers, > when you didn't want sound anyway? We want to avoid having "underfeatured" Emacs binaries around without people noticing: particularly bad track records have missing X11 support and missing XPM support (needed for color icons). Requiring explicit options for suppressing such libraries (even if it is just --without-panic) will mean that the output of system-configuration-options (which is reported by report-emacs-bug) will reflect this compilation configuration. This makes error diagnosis easier and provides a first pointer to the user before actually sending the bug report. When the user is not identical with the person compiling Emacs, this might be even more relevant, though in all fairness, I think most of the problems reported in this context have been from users making their own compilations. -- David Kastrup