[AUCTeX-devel] Re: Upstream support of XEmacs in AUCTeX

[Uwe Brauer]

>>>>> "David" == David Kastrup <address@hidden> writes:


   > Basically it seems like a waste of time to recreate the AUCTeX
   > build process when one can just let the build process run and check
   > the results in.  In that manner, supporting AUCTeX is not a bit
   > more complicated than supporting any Lisp-only package.

I am not sure that it is that simple, but anyhow.


   > We don't want features that are in a state of stasis or bit rot mainly
   > because of the complexity from XEmacs compatibility.  The LaTeX toolbar
   > is in that state, and that's mostly my fault because I asked its author
   > for it.  The multibyte and error parsing support for preview-latex is
   > close.  The compatibility stuff for font lock code is complicating
   > things, and still font lock does not work satisfactorily: XEmacs is
   > unusable on large files and much less accurate.


Well as far as I can remember I tried that out, and it never worked out
for Xemacs, at some point its autor told me he would come back, in any
case that is not a real problem, it is just a case where some
functionality is not working.

   > I am considering dropping Emacs 21 compatibility soon because the
   > Emacs 22 provisions are just a better environment for development.
   > XEmacs has not even left the Emacs 20.4 (or so) era consistently.

   > XEmacs compatibility is crippling AUCTeX development for all of its
   > users.  And the XEmacs user base is just too small to warrant that.
   > If those that actually use XEmacs are not willing or able to get
   > the stuff to run on XEmacs, because XEmacs is too different or
   > broken or most likely because nobody really cares enough, then
   > that's just that.

   > I'd rather have AUCTeX go forward Emacs-only than not at all.

All I am asking you, it not to remove XEmacs compatibility. It would be
a nightmare that one day I try to open a latex file with the latest
auctex version and I obtain an error message because some functions are
not defined. Couldn't you just do the following:

    -  all new features you add in are GNU Emacs tested only so they
       might work under XEmacs or not (and if some XEmacs hacker wants
       to implement it great).

    -  but still even a "crippled" version would work under XEmacs?


Uwe Brauer