From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Kevin Ryde Newsgroups: gmane.lisp.guile.devel Subject: Re: deprecated features Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 09:44:38 +1100 Message-ID: <874pqgt57t.fsf@zip.com.au> References: <871wlprck9.fsf@chbouib.org> <45B4C7A0.5020302@xs4all.nl> <87tzyiwzwv.fsf@zip.com.au> <45B55C06.2000603@xs4all.nl> <877ivev9ju.fsf@zip.com.au> <45B562E4.4000105@xs4all.nl> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1169678742 23191 80.91.229.12 (24 Jan 2007 22:45:42 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 22:45:42 +0000 (UTC) Cc: guile-devel@gnu.org To: hanwen@xs4all.nl Original-X-From: guile-devel-bounces+guile-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Jan 24 23:45:35 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: guile-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1H9qry-0003Fx-85 for guile-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 24 Jan 2007 23:45:30 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1H9qrx-0007Ng-NJ for guile-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:45:29 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1H9qrv-0007MS-HT for guile-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:45:27 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1H9qru-0007LS-6R for guile-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:45:27 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1H9qru-0007LP-0m for guile-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:45:26 -0500 Original-Received: from mailout2-8.pacific.net.au ([61.8.2.231] helo=mailout2.pacific.net.au) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.52) id 1H9qrt-0007qP-DN for guile-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:45:25 -0500 Original-Received: from mailproxy1.pacific.net.au (mailproxy1.pacific.net.au [61.8.2.162]) by mailout2.pacific.net.au (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5206A6E0C5; Thu, 25 Jan 2007 09:45:19 +1100 (EST) Original-Received: from localhost (ppp2944.dyn.pacific.net.au [61.8.41.68]) by mailproxy1.pacific.net.au (Postfix) with ESMTP id 093778C3D; Thu, 25 Jan 2007 09:45:21 +1100 (EST) Original-Received: from gg by localhost with local (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1H9qrM-0002VN-8l; Thu, 25 Jan 2007 09:44:52 +1100 Mail-Copies-To: never In-Reply-To: <45B562E4.4000105@xs4all.nl> (Han-Wen Nienhuys's message of "Tue, 23 Jan 2007 02:20:36 +0100") User-Agent: Gnus/5.110006 (No Gnus v0.6) Emacs/21.4 (gnu/linux) X-detected-kernel: Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) X-BeenThere: guile-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Developers list for Guile, the GNU extensibility library" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: guile-devel-bounces+guile-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: guile-devel-bounces+guile-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.lisp.guile.devel:6488 Archived-At: Han-Wen Nienhuys writes: > > Perhaps, but I'm for cleaner code. Having to keep deprecated stuff > around (and worse: having to write various deprecation wrappers for > them) is detrimental to code quality. I would say the contrary is worse. Users following the advertised rules are told (exaggerated for rhetorical effect :-) "sucked in; we said there was this feature, we encouraged you to use it, now it's gone". If guile is the official extension language, used by all gnu packages (in principle) then it's a serious problem. I expect the effect in practice is, at each incompatible change, to throw off people who can't, or are not inclined to, update. For example gcc stuck to autoconf 2.13 for a long long time because subsequent changes were incompatible (even though they were cleaner in both concept and implementation). Or you end up with versionitis, like 5 versions of automake all in debian at the same time, because they each have subtle different effects (even if sensible packages are ok with any of them). > If the consensus is that removing deprecated features will not ever be > done, then there is little point in marking routines as such, and > writing wrappers to signal their use. Yes. "Don't do it" is the motto. > We could clean up GUILE by throwing away all the bookkeeping. It has to stay for applications of course. _______________________________________________ Guile-devel mailing list Guile-devel@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/guile-devel