Hi, Richard and Stefan,

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> wrote on 2007-08-31 09:34:55:

>     An "easy" solution is to prefer reading the newer .el files rather
>     than the older .elc when `requiring' a file during
>     byte-compilation.

Stefan, the essential issue here is to ensure that cc-{mode,engine}.el
actually get recompiled after a change in cc-langs.el.  This needs stuff
in the makefile.
 
>     To solve this problem, it would have to load the newer .el file
>     even if the feature is already provided.

There is stuff like this in cc-bytecomp.el - cc-require, cc-provide, and
so on.  I've a feeling that cc-require might load the .el file rather
than the .elc, but I'm not sure at the moment.  Byte compiling
cc-langs.el is a good idea anyway, to check for errors in cc-langs.

> That is quite different from `require', and I don't think we should
> change `require' to do that.  But we could add it as a separate new
> feature, perhaps called `compilation-require'.

> What do you think about that?

cc-bytecomp implements this sort of thing.  Possibly its functionality
could be absorbed into Emacs 23.

--
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).