Re: reftex.el autoloads

[phillip.lord@russet.org.uk (Phillip Lord)]

Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> writes:

> Personally I don't believe there is anything to fix.
> Stefan came up with this system specifically so that autoloads could be
> stored in those files.
> AFAICS the only "fix" that exists is to put the autoloads back into separate
> non-versioned files, which obviously could have been done at any time.
> (Note that we have admin/update_autogen which automatically update the
> md5sums once a day if needed. It's been working fine for years.)
>
> Anyway, pretty sure you will find this was already discussed in the
> emacs-devel archives a long time ago. Eg
>
> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2007-07/msg00336.html

My reading of that thread (and the comment in autoload.el) is that
Stefan came up with the system specifically to minimize the problems
with files being partially versioned. Consider from Eli:

>> It also breaks the principle that files that are rewritten locally as
>> part of the build process are not kept in CVS.

>> So I think this change in its current incarnation is for the worse.
>> Maybe if the autoloads were written into files that are not in CVS
>> I'd be happier.

And from Stefan:

>> Indeed, there's a problem with the current situation. I have an idea
>> to solve this problem, I'll install a patch shortly,

> Nothing's changed, so I don't see a need to change something that works.

We've changed VC from CVS. Stefan's patch solves the problem for linear
development. But it doesn't solve the problem when you checkout
backwards in time (i.e. git bisect) or sideways (i.e. switching branch).

I still do not understand why having generated statements in a source
file is desirable.

Phil