Subject: Re: bug#57412: Could we make linum.el obsolete?

From: Stefan Kangas <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2022 15:10:48 -0400

close 57412 29.1
thanks

Stefan Kangas <[email-masked]> writes:

> Is there any reason to keep linum.el around any longer, or could it be
> marked obsolete in favor of `display-line-numbers-mode'?

(That was 4 weeks ago.)

Despite one notable objection on the grounds that it is still useful,
most people here seem to agree that we can go ahead and obsolete it,
given that it can be replaced by `nlinum' (on GNU ELPA) which is faster
and has less bugs.[1]

Meanwhile, Stefan Monnier pointed out that:[2]

> [O]bsoleting `linum.el` doesn't mean removing it from Emacs for
> several more years.  And even if/when we do decide to remove it, we
> can move it to GNU ELPA instead if there's still interest.

So I've now obsoleted linum.el in commit 903de63c6c and d506d91b1f, and
I'm closing this bug.  We recommend `nlinum' as a close to drop-in
replacement, alternatively `display-line-numbers-mode'.

Footnotes:
[1] Users also seem to like `nlinum', see e.g.:
     https://github.com/company-mode/company-mode/issues/1336

[2] Hopefully, however, Emacs will be shipping with nlinum.el included
     in our release tarballs by then.  We just need to figure out how to
     properly integrate GNU ELPA packages first.