GNU bug report logs - #24555
[PATCH] Remove unused variable `command-debug-status'

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Message #32 received at 24555 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Philippe Vaucher <philippe.vaucher <at> gmail.com>
Cc: monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca, 24555 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#24555: [PATCH] Remove unused variable `command-debug-status'
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2016 18:04:31 +0300

> From: Philippe Vaucher <philippe.vaucher <at> gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2016 08:50:08 +0200
> Cc: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>, 24555 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> > Can't think of any situation where I'd want/need that.  The name seems
> > to indicate it could be used that way in the context of debugging, but
> > even in that kind of scenario I'm unable to come up with a use-case.
> 
> That's why I asked what was the use of such variable... even if we
> restore the code that sets it, it is not used anywhere else.
> 
> The commit history suggest it might have been useful near the start of
> the development of Emacs, but I don't think it is anymore.
> 
> I vote for dropping it.

I don't think we can drop features just because no use case presents
itself for the moment.  IME, a debugging aid could be of no use until
you are in a situation where it is something to kill for.

But we don't need to argue about this now, because the way we remove
features from Emacs is by first declaring them obsolete, and keeping
them like that for a few releases; we don't just drop them without a
previous notice.

So I'm okay with declaring this variable obsolete, and even removing
its documentation from the manual, but we do need to restore the
specbind call that was deleted.

Philippe, can you do this, please?  It should be done on the emacs-25
branch, since the specbind was deleted in 25.1.

Thanks.

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