Subject: Re: bug#1171: #1171 - ns-version-string - Emacs bug report logs

From: Yavor Doganov <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:11:53 +0300

Adrian Robert wrote:
> 
> OK, I've changed it to output a version number determined
> compile-time from the toolkit

Thanks, it looks very good and works fine on GNUstep.  However, there
seems to be something inconsistent (unrelated to your changes):

In GNU Emacs 23.0.60 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, NS gnustep-gui-0.12.0)
 of 2008-10-22 on gana.yavor.doganov.org
Windowing system distributor `GNU', version 103.110.117.115.116.101.112.45.103.117.105.45.48.46.49.50.46.48

On GNU and Unix-like systems GNUstep uses X, so I find this very
strange and of course not informative at all.  I haven't checked why
`x-server-version' is so bizarre in this case, but probably you know
already.

> Yavor, if you decide

Well, I can't decide anything since I'm not an Emacs developer ;-)

> it's better to report the GNUstep base version  
> also, you can use NSFoundationVersionNumber for OS X.

GNUstep Base is fairly stable and complete, and I guess so is Apple's
FoundationKit (which is the main reason why gnustep-base is in such a
shape, of course).  I guess the reasoning to include it in
`emacs-version' is if it helps with bug reports.  Although there were
some very nasty bugs in -base (even recently), it is more or less
mature.  Time will tell, I think.

> nextstep/GNUstep/Emacs.base/Resources/Emacs.desktop

IMHO this is entirely useless for GNUstep, because:

1) Typically, GNUstep users do not use freedesktop.org-aware
   environments such as GNOME/KDE/Xfce.
2) Even in the rare cases when they do, the .desktop files must be in
   $(datadir)/applications (or ~/.local/share/applications) in order
   to be parsed, loaded and to show up in the menus.
3) The file is invalid (this can be fixed, certainly, but it is a
   general problem with all standard GNUstep apps where the pl2link
   tool generates broken .desktop files and puts them in the wrong
   place).