Re: Improving Emacs for writing code

[Chong Yidong <cyd@stupidchicken.com>]

"Eric M. Ludlam" <eric@siege-engine.com> writes:

>   Unfortunately, merging the build harness will not be easy, or really
> possible in CEDET CVS tree since a goal for me will be at least one
> more CEDET release for older Emacsen.

There are lots of packages in Emacs that contain compatibility code for
older Emacsen and/or XEmacs: CC mode, Gnus, etc.  AFAICT, the existence
of such code is not a problem for merging.

Adding CEDET to Emacs might involve several changes up-front to make
CEDET mesh better with existing Emacs features (this code can be
enclosed, where necessary, in compatiblity wrappers, so it can exist in
both trees).  Thereafter, any changes coming from our end are likely to
be smallish bug-fixes which should be easily merged into your tree.  Big
changes coming from your end can be periodically copied, as a whole,
into our tree (e.g., every major Emacs release).  I believe this is
similar to the way Alan works on CC mode, for example.

> 1) Truth is in the Emacs, and I find some way to participate there, or
>    there is a branch where I can work.
>
> 2) Truth is in SourceForge, and changes by Emacs developers are
>    checked into SourceForge.  I'd then need to find a way to get
>    releases that allow a periodic mass-copy into the Emacs tree.

We could easily set up a CEDET branch of Emacs for you to work on, if
you feel that's convenient.  But once we're done making the
aforementioned initial changes to mesh CEDET with Emacs features,
periodic mass-copying shouldn't be difficult.