Re: package system and backwards compatibility

Simon> I'm not sure it can be solved immediately, but I'd might as well make Simon> an note of it for those who ponder on the packaging system. Simon> I just submitted a patch for a new builtin function in XEmacs, Simon> partially in order to be able to completely sync a lisp file in a Simon> package with Emacs21. Simon> Now, should the code in the package assume this new function is Simon> available? No. Simon> Should it detect lack of the function, and add a Simon> workaround, for it? Yes. That's the traditional way of handling the problem. It's similar to providing code which works across different versions of the same branch of Emacs. Simon> If packages aren't allowed to use new functionality in XEmacs, Simon> the bit-rot of xemacs-packages will only increase and Simon> maintainance will be a nightmare. I don't see how this introduces bit-rot. Maintenance gets slightly harder, but if it gets excessive, just abstract out the relevant code into a separate file. History has shown that this approach is not too expensive to keep up. -- Cheers =8-} Mike Friede, Völkerverständigung und überhaupt blabla