Subject: bug#52400: [PATCH] Don't generate separate autoload file for htmlfontify.el

From: Stefan Kangas <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2021 19:45:35 +0000

Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]> writes:

> But it isn't cruft.  You tend to declare something "cruft" too easily.

This file is the result of an old optimization (some autoloads) that
were subsequently cleaned up.  (The non-optimized version would have
been to just require hfy-cmap.el.)  However, the clean-up didn't go far
enough, and thus we ended up with a file that I think can be accurately
described as cruft.

> No, we don't.  Please don't consider cruft anything that you think is
> not right; there's more than one way to skin a fish.  People who
> worked on Emacs before us weren't exactly incompetent, you know.

I don't think saying that some things have outgrown their usefulness or
could be done better reflects negatively on previous authors.

> Just get used to it being there, I say.  It doesn't do any harm,
> although you seem to think it does.

The "harm" here is exactly having to get used to it.  IOW, you may argue
that this is a very minor cleanup, but on the other hand the cost of
doing nothing is also non-zero.  Hackers will have to look at this for
another couple of decades, or until someone else thinks to install a
patch like the one I wrote.

However, since you seem to feel strongly about it, I won't insist.