Re: Motif support

[Arthur Miller]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> From: Arthur Miller <arthur.miller@live.com>
>> Cc: luangruo@yahoo.com,  enometh@meer.net,  emacs-devel@gnu.org
>> Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2021 18:47:09 +0100
>> 
>> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
>> 
>> > That was basically the second time Po Lu implemented something in the
>> > display engine, and the first time he had to deal with layout code, so
>> > some guidance should be expected, for a complex piece of software that
>> > takes more than 40K LOC.  From my POV, the guidance he needed was
>> > relatively minor; most of the discussion was about the various
>> > implementation strategies.
>> Of course guidance is needed and expected. I have no problem with that, I 
>> just
>> reac on him saying it is missinformation to say that Emacs is not so easy to
>> hack. You say it's complex, he says it's easy :).
>
> That's not a contradiction, however strange it may sound.  Doing
> localized changes is relatively easy even in a complex piece of
> software.  The guidance that is needed is just to point to the
> relevant functions.
>
>> And as said, amount of time he seems to have to spend on all kind of 
>> different
>> OS:s, Emacs parts and all different discussion seems to be quite
>> tremendous. Expecting everyone to have that time is unrealistic. 
>
> The time you need for a change depends on how simple or complex the
> change is.  Not everyone is expected to make significant changes,
> there's a lot of place for relatively simple ones.
>
>> But yes of course the guidance is needed for people new to it, and everyone
>> needs help; I have got help, and everyone else gets help, so it should be of
>> course. But nobody needs accusation for spreading missinformation when saying
>> things are complex and could be simpler.
>
> Accusations aside, I think your impression of the Emacs code being an
> impenetrable undocumented mess is way too extreme.

I didn't say it is "impentrenable undocumented mess", I said it could be
nicer. I also said it has got much better in later years, but 10k sloc files
with lots of if-defs are not very nice.