From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: New hook before-region-change-functions wanted Date: Sat, 09 Sep 2017 22:44:19 -0400 Message-ID: References: <20170908144657.GA3463@ACM> <20170909083326.GA5194@ACM> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Utf-8 X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1505011542 31578 195.159.176.226 (10 Sep 2017 02:45:42 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2017 02:45:42 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Alan Mackenzie Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Sep 10 04:45:35 2017 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1dqsFV-0007bX-Fh for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 10 Sep 2017 04:45:29 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:51521 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dqsFc-0000FY-IS for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 09 Sep 2017 22:45:36 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:41974) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dqsEW-00005A-9e for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 09 Sep 2017 22:44:29 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dqsEV-0005vn-Hp for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 09 Sep 2017 22:44:28 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:51737) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dqsEQ-0005sW-67; Sat, 09 Sep 2017 22:44:22 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1dqsEN-0006We-Vm; Sat, 09 Sep 2017 22:44:20 -0400 In-reply-to: <20170909083326.GA5194@ACM> (message from Alan Mackenzie on Sat, 9 Sep 2017 08:33:26 +0000) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 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" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:218085 Archived-At: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] > > That kind of hook is pandora's box. It is too powerful, and would > > interact in complex ways. There will be many cases that are hard to > > implement correctly, or cause trouble. To implement this probably > > means future hassles for ourselves and for package developers. > I actually implemented it, and it worked as intended. I think you mean it works as intended in your use case. I am talking about something else. My experience says that this kind of feature is likely to fail in various peculiar cases, which would make it a maintenance burder. Also, it is likely to show show strange confusing behavior which would lead to trouble in debugging. We are better off without it. The other approach has the virtue of being entirely internal. It will not require an announcement, or adding to the Lisp manual. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation (gnu.org, fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (internethalloffame.org) Skype: No way! See stallman.org/skype.html.