Re: {Spam?} Re: [Customize] [info] doesn't work

[Stefan]

> As I can see from CVS log, `info' had an autoload cookie from the first day,
> but parentheses handling was added in year 1998.  I suppose all those
> packages use `Info-goto-node' instead of `info' for compatibility with
> Emacs versions released before 1998.  If so, their authors might not agree
> to change their code if they intend to support earlier Emacs versions.

Right, but the autoload cookie for Info-goto-node would only be available
in Emacsen released in 2005 and onward, hence my claim that it would be
even more difficult to convince authors to remove the (require 'info)
or (autoload 'Info-goto-node "info").

>>> And there are countless Emacs packages not distributed with Emacs where
>>> attempts to change `Info-goto-node' to `info' are futile.
>> 
>> Yes, there's a lot of bad code out there, but I don't see why we should try
>> to improve support for bad code.  It's bad enough having to preserve
>> backward compatibility with it.

> Not adding an autoload cookie to `Info-goto-node' makes bad code even
> worse by forcing authors to add (autoload 'Info-goto-node "info") or
> (require 'info) for `Info-goto-node', but it nevertheless suggests
> them to use `info'.

I think it's good that bad code has to be cumbersome.  It's a good
incentive to look for a better alternative.

> To improve the current situation we might mention in the Info manual that
> `info' is the preferable method to display an Info node from Lisp code.

Agreed,


        Stefan