From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David.Kastrup@t-online.de (David Kastrup) Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Idea for determining what users use Date: 27 May 2003 15:27:08 +0200 Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: References: Reply-To: dak@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1054042857 23561 80.91.224.249 (27 May 2003 13:40:57 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 13:40:57 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Tue May 27 15:40:55 2003 Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 19Keef-0005te-00 for ; Tue, 27 May 2003 15:38:17 +0200 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 19KesN-00016k-00 for ; Tue, 27 May 2003 15:52:27 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.20) id 19KeWs-0004TX-SN for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Tue, 27 May 2003 09:30:14 -0400 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.20) id 19KeW3-000497-HV for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 27 May 2003 09:29:23 -0400 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.20) id 19KeVT-0003ut-4j for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 27 May 2003 09:28:47 -0400 Original-Received: from mailout02.sul.t-online.com ([194.25.134.17]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.20) id 19KeUG-0003XT-6C; Tue, 27 May 2003 09:27:32 -0400 Original-Received: from fwd06.sul.t-online.de by mailout02.sul.t-online.com with smtp id 19KeUF-0006c1-06; Tue, 27 May 2003 15:27:31 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost.localdomain (520018396234-0001@[62.226.12.150]) by fwd06.sul.t-online.com with esmtp id 19KeTv-0Be6QiC; Tue, 27 May 2003 15:27:11 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost.localdomain (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by localhost.localdomain (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id h4RDRAR5002590; Tue, 27 May 2003 15:27:10 +0200 Original-Received: (from dak@localhost) by localhost.localdomain (8.12.8/8.12.8/Submit) id h4RDR9sH002586; Tue, 27 May 2003 15:27:09 +0200 Original-To: rms@gnu.org In-Reply-To: Original-Lines: 36 User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3.50 X-Sender: 520018396234-0001@t-dialin.net X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1b5 Precedence: list List-Id: Emacs development discussions. List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Archive: List-Unsubscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:14319 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:14319 Richard Stallman writes: > We have no good way to determine if anyone still uses a feature. > Maybe we can create one. > > Imagine a function called note-feature-used. > You call it like this: (note-feature-used 'foo "Foo"). > The first time you call it, it sends mail to > emacs-features-used@gnu.org with subject Foo, > asking you for permission to send it, > and it records (setq foo t) in your .emacs file. > If you call it again, it does nothing. > > We could put these calls into various files and functions in order > to find out (after the next release) whether anyone uses them. Quite dangerous since it could be felt as a sort of privacy issue. It must be carefully voiced. Something like Feature foo has been deprecated (? for info). Complain (y/n)? and then offer the usual "use it this time/don't ask again" dialog we use for disabled commands. After a while, one can remove the feature/command and instead do Feature foo has been removed (? for info). Complain (y/n)? The info should explain why something is removed/deprecated and what to use instead. The mail buffer should be set up in a way that the user can add his own comments and send, not just do this silently. -- David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum