Re: hard-newline changes in lisp/gnus/message.el

[Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc>]

On Sat, Nov 19 2005, Chong Yidong wrote:

> Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> writes:
>> As for `hard-newline': Obviously `hard-newline' is not defined in
>> Emacs < 22.  I'm not sure what's the best way to deal with this.  I'd
>> suggest to define `message-hard-newline' in `message.el' as follows
>> and use it instead of `hard-newline'.
>
> Why not:
>
> (if (not (boundp hard-newline))
>    (defvar hard-newline (propertize "\n" 'hard t 'rear-nonsticky '(hard))))

(Your suggestion should read (unless (boundp 'hard-newline) ...).)

It violates Emacs Lisp coding conventions:

,----[ (info "(elisp)Coding Conventions") ]
|    * If a package needs to define an alias or a new function for
|      compatibility with some other version of Emacs, name it with the
|      package prefix, not with the raw name with which it occurs in the
|      other version.  Here is an example from Gnus, which provides many
|      examples of such compatibility issues.
| 
|           (defalias 'gnus-point-at-bol
|             (if (fboundp 'point-at-bol)
|                 'point-at-bol
|               'line-beginning-position))
`----

The same applies to variables, IMO.

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
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