Subject: Re: bug#66050: Making perl-mode.el obsolete

From: Stefan Kangas <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2023 00:31:15 -0700

Harald Jörg <[email-masked]> writes:

> Stefan Monnier <[email-masked]> writes:
>
>> I think the best option is to obsolete `perl-mode` and to encourage
>> people to report bugs against `cperl-mode` when they find it doesn't
>> work as well as their beloved `perl-mode` :-)
>
> +1

How about this basic plan:

First, we make perl-mode.el obsolete on master.

Second, we announce that people should report bugs against cperl-mode
where they want it to be more like perl-mode, and that we are looking
for interested volunteers to help work on implementing this.

Third, we close all bugs against perl-mode as wontfix, and recommend the
reporter to see if it is fixed by using cperl-mode instead.

Fourth, if we don't have enough tangible progress in cperl-mode, we can
unobsolete perl-mode.el on the Emacs 30 release branch, right after it
is cut, while keeping it in obsolete/ on master.  That would give us
additional time to make sure cperl-mode.el is up to scratch.

My idea here is to motivate people to work on cperl-mode, avoid
unnecessary bikeshedding, and to take a firm stance on the direction we
want to take as a project here.

Does anyone object to or see any problems with the above?