GNU bug report logs - #66554
[PATCH] Add the public API of Compat to the core

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From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Philip Kaludercic <philipk <at> posteo.net>
Cc: mail <at> daniel-mendler.de, stefankangas <at> gmail.com, monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca, 66554 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#66554: [PATCH] Add the public API of Compat to the core
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2024 22:17:43 +0200

> From: Philip Kaludercic <philipk <at> posteo.net>
> Cc: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>,  66554 <at> debbugs.gnu.org,
>   monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca,  stefankangas <at> gmail.com
> Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2024 19:51:27 +0000
> 
> Pinging this thread with an updated version of the patch:

I find the documentation of this arrangement still insufficient.  The
way this stuff works (which required Daniel to write 150 lines of
explanation) is mostly kept out of the written docs, so we'll have to
rely on people's memory.  Can we document this machinery better?

> +Packages that wish to support older releases of Emacs, without giving
> +up on newer functionality from recent Emacs releases, one can make use
> +of the Compat package on GNU ELPA.  For details on how to make use of
> +the package, @xref{Usage,, Usage, compat, "Compat" Manual}. In case
                ^^^^^                                        ^^
This should be "see @ref" or "@pxref".  @xref is only suitable at the
beginning of a statement.  And please leave 2 spaces between sentences
there.

> +** New package Compat
> +The Compat package on GNU ELPA provides forwards-compatibility
> +support, so that packages that still provide support for older

I think this is known as "backward compatibility".

> +versions of Emacs can still make use of newer definitions that can be
> +reasonably re-implemented in Elisp.  Now a "pseudo" Compat package is
> +part of Emacs, that doesn't provide any compatibility support, but
> +only implements the public-facing API of Compat so that core packages
> +can use Compat, while also preventing the installation of Compat on
> +the most recent version of Emacs.

Not sure this detailed description is useful.  Why not just say that
Compat is now also available with Emacs?

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