Re: return first element in list with certain property

[John Mastro <john.b.mastro@gmail.com>]

Robert Thorpe <rt@robertthorpeconsulting.com> wrote:
> John Mastro <john.b.mastro@gmail.com> writes:
> > Emacs 25 was released a bit over a year ago, in September 2016 :)
> >
> > I think it's perfectly reasonable to use seq.el in your package.
>
> I don't agree, 24 isn't that old.  Perhaps you use Microsoft Windows?

I am (un)lucky enough to use all three of GNU/Linux, MacOS, and Windows
on a regular basis.

> Those of us using *nix derivatives are in a different situation.
> Upgrading is risky.  If you use GNU/Linux (or whatever you call it) it
> makes sense to stick with one distribution (I use Xubuntu).  It makes
> sense not to upgrade too regularly.  Compiling Emacs is a non-starter
> because there are too many build options and nobody understands them
> except distro builders and the Emacs maintainers.  Unfortunately, that
> means not upgrading Emacs.

I agree that some users won't be comfortable compiling Emacs (or any
program) themselves. However, I don't agree that "upgrading [Emacs] is
risky", it's "a non-starter", or that "nobody understands [build
options]", especially not for users on GNU/Linux or Unix-like systems in
general.

> I use Emacs 25.2 at work on MS Windows.  At home I use Emacs 24.5.  I will
> continue to use it until I have to upgrade Ubuntu.

FWIW, I build Emacs's master branch (Emacs 27.0.50) on all three
platforms, and I'm neither a distro builder nor an Emacs maintainer.

> I consider this worthwhile because owning and updating a MS Windows
> machine would be much more troublesome and expensive.  That applies
> whatever you think about software licensing.  However, for Emacs it
> means using older versions.

More generally, I want to note that I didn't say "there are no downsides
to using seq.el in place of cl-lib" or "there's no case for supporting
Emacs versions < 25.1". However, particularly for a new package with no
existing users, I do think it's perfectly reasonable to use seq.el and
support only Emacs versions >= 25.1.

        John