From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: =?utf-8?Q?=C3=93scar_Fuentes?= Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Emacs rewrite in a maintainable language Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2015 15:22:07 +0200 Message-ID: <87oag4jk74.fsf@wanadoo.es> References: <561A19AB.5060001@cumego.com> <87io6dl0h0.fsf@wanadoo.es> <87lhb82qxc.fsf@gmail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1444656178 440 80.91.229.3 (12 Oct 2015 13:22:58 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2015 13:22:58 +0000 (UTC) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Oct 12 15:22:49 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Zld3w-0005Vt-Ih for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 12 Oct 2015 15:22:48 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:55305 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Zld3w-0002H9-18 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 12 Oct 2015 09:22:48 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:51221) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Zld3a-000273-U9 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 12 Oct 2015 09:22:28 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Zld3X-0002fD-SS for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 12 Oct 2015 09:22:26 -0400 Original-Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:51928) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Zld3X-0002f2-Lf for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 12 Oct 2015 09:22:23 -0400 Original-Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Zld3U-00057d-Ew for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 12 Oct 2015 15:22:20 +0200 Original-Received: from 198.red-83-32-113.dynamicip.rima-tde.net ([83.32.113.198]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Mon, 12 Oct 2015 15:22:20 +0200 Original-Received: from ofv by 198.red-83-32-113.dynamicip.rima-tde.net with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Mon, 12 Oct 2015 15:22:20 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 27 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 198.red-83-32-113.dynamicip.rima-tde.net User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/25.0.50 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:3RLzeqyx+BOKO/ROJfkGKGyq3Lo= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 80.91.229.3 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:191331 Archived-At: Oleh Krehel writes: > I think slowly moving the Emacs C core to C++ is a good idea. The two > languages are supposed to be largely compile-compatible, i.e. g++ can > understand what was meant for gcc. Many times, while looking at the Emacs C sources, I thought "this would be much simpler to understand and modify with C++." Furthermore, I would volunteer to work on it. However, there are two factors against it: * If the rewrite happens, using a better language than C++ is desirable. C++ is better than C, but it sucks too. Developing our own subset of Elisp that can be compiled to native code and can inter-operate with C looks more attractive. * Current maintainers are not likely to welcome the idea, for several legitimate reasons ("don't know C++", "I dislike it", etc). And Stallman would forbide it alright ("C++ in my Emacs? No way!" :-) Making the pill easier to swallow by restricting ourselves to the simpler C++ features greatly diminishes its effectiveness too. See the case of GCC. It was too obvious that switching to C++ would improve the code, but it was resisted for many years. [snip]