Re: Comment in verilog-mode.el about supported versions

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

> Sorry, I don't understand why it should be difficult or what makes more
> difficult to handle this file that, for instance tramp or cc-mode.

Note that the cc-mode in Emacs is also full of compatibility code (and
the fact that it's not 100% identical to the code distributed separately
is a serious problem that has caused Alan to reject some changes simply
because they were too hard to sync back to the other version).

Having compatibility code is normal and accepted.  It's more important
to make maintenance easy than to streamline the Emacs's builtin code.

> Wouldn't it better to keep one verilog-mode.el version in ELPA fully
> compatible with Emacs-21?
> And let the file in the master branch to benefit of all that
> has come since Emacs-21?

It's better to have a single version for both cases.  It does not mean
that you can't benefit from all that has come since Emacs-21 (well,
maybe in some cases you can't benefit from 100% but still a very large
percentage).

> I also notice that the file is very large (> 14 klines).
> Maybe it would be easier to maintain if the file is split in 4-5 files.

A single file also has its benefits (I don't have an opinion either way,
really: just pointing out that it's a very valid choice as well).


        Stefan