Tracing changes to elisp manual

Tracing changes to elisp manual

[Abraham S.A.H. via Emacs development discussions.]

I didn't get any respond in emacs-user list.

Hey,

Greet everyone. Sorry for noise.

I have noticed a new closure section in elisp manual's “lisp data types section”.

“(elisp) Top > Lisp Data Types > Programming Types > Closure Type”

(replaced byte-compiled functions)
And I wonder, how can someone find out what are the new additions/removals/changes to elisp manual from the previous version?

For instance, when using Emacs 30.1 I want to know what have been changed in Emacs Lisp Reference Manual since version 29.4.

I have checked “view-emacs-news” (C-h n); it does show latest changes into Emacs Lisp, but not current version's major changes to Elisp manual.

Is there any changelog or news for elisp manual?

--
Best Regards,
Abraham
Sent with Tutanota; https://tuta.com

Re: Tracing changes to elisp manual

[Stefan Kangas]

"Abraham S.A.H." via "Emacs development discussions."
<emacs-devel@gnu.org> writes:

> I have noticed a new closure section in elisp manual's “lisp data types section”.
>
> “(elisp) Top > Lisp Data Types > Programming Types > Closure Type”
>
> (replaced byte-compiled functions)
> And I wonder, how can someone find out what are the new additions/removals/changes to elisp manual from the previous version?
>
> For instance, when using Emacs 30.1 I want to know what have been changed in Emacs Lisp Reference Manual since version 29.4.
>
> I have checked “view-emacs-news” (C-h n); it does show latest changes into Emacs Lisp, but not current version's major changes to Elisp manual.
>
> Is there any changelog or news for elisp manual?

We usually mention documentation changes in NEWS together with the
change that they document.

Re: Tracing changes to elisp manual

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sat, 14 Sep 2024 15:42:53 +0200 (CEST)
> From:  "Abraham S.A.H." via "Emacs development discussions." <emacs-devel@gnu.org>
> 
> I didn't get any respond in emacs-user list.

Stefan replied to you there.

> I have noticed a new closure section in elisp manual's “lisp data types section”.
> 
> “(elisp) Top > Lisp Data Types > Programming Types > Closure Type”
> 
> (replaced byte-compiled functions)
> And I wonder, how can someone find out what are the new additions/removals/changes to elisp manual from the previous version?
> 
> For instance, when using Emacs 30.1 I want to know what have been changed in Emacs Lisp Reference Manual since version 29.4.
> 
> I have checked “view-emacs-news” (C-h n); it does show latest changes into Emacs Lisp, but not current version's major changes to Elisp manual.
> 
> Is there any changelog or news for elisp manual?

We no longer maintain ChangeLog files, we generate them from Git log.
You could grep for "lispref" in the latest top-level ChangeLog.N file
in the tree created by unpacking the tarball, which will show the log
of changes to that manual.  But the description of the changes is very
terse in the logs.  If you want to see the changes in the text, you
will have to use Git in the clone of the Emacs repository.

Alternatively, run Diff on the old and the new version of elisp.info.

More generally, we describe the changes in NEWS, and not on any lower
levels, because doing that would be a significant maintenance burden,
and we don't consider that as an efficient investment of our
resources.

May I ask why you are interested in the changes on such a low level?
Basically, every change in wording or punctuation are technically
"changes in the manual", but I very much doubt that it could be of any
practical interest.

Re: Tracing changes to elisp manual

[Abraham S.A.H. via Emacs development discussions.]

> More generally, we describe the changes in NEWS, and not on any lower levels, because doing that would be a significant maintenance burden, and we don't consider that as an efficient investment of our resources.

You are right.  God bless you.
> May I ask why you are interested in the changes on such a low level?
Basically, every change in wording or punctuation are technically
"changes in the manual", but I very much doubt that it could be of any
practical interest.

I think, I didn't express myself well.  I was to know the major elisp documentation changes.  Not every change.  

After reading venerable "An Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp" of Robert J. Chassell, and a few online materials, I am on elisp manual now; updating to Emcs 30.91 and seeing noticable changes, I fear to miss anything added to or changed in chapters I have already read and passed.

But:
> Alternatively, run Diff on the old and the new version of elisp.info.

This will work best for me.

Besides, seems NEWS already does cover any important changes into elisp.

Thanks
--
Best Regards,
Abraham
Sent with Tutanota; https://tuta.com