Subject: RE: bug#2296: 23.0.90; x-pointer-shape is not defined in emacs -Q

From: "Drew Adams" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:38:29 -0800

> From: Jason Rumney Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 4:33 AM
> tags 2296 +notabug +wontfix
> thanks
> 
> Drew Adams wrote:
> > This is a regression. In every version of Emacs from 20 through 22,
> > `x-pointer-shape' is a defined variable when you start Emacs.
> 
> Only when compiled with X support, as its name implies. Due to a copy 
> and paste bug, it was defined but unused on Windows also in previous 
> versions, but this bug has been fixed, as you have noticed.

Fair enough. I don't mind fixing my own code to test using boundp now. But this
is likely to break other code as well. Code that simply tested whether the value
was non-nil as a safeguard must now be changed to test using boundp as a
safeguard instead. A boundp test previously would not have worked (since it was
bound to nil on Windows). 

So whether considered as a bug fix or not, it is an incompatible change, one
that code which uses x-pointer-shape must accommodate. Perhaps the change should
be called out in NEWS.