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Re: lexical mumblings


From: Miles Bader
Subject: Re: lexical mumblings
Date: 25 Oct 2001 00:42:58 +0900

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:
> We must be having a miscommunication.  The change I envision is
> 100% upward-compatible: as of a certain day, you can run Scheme programs
> in Emacs as well as Emacs Lisp programs.  There will be no change
> in the Emacs Lisp language.

We must be having a miscommunication, because my proposed changes are
100% upward-compatible as well -- they won't affect _any_ elisp
programs, because they don't change any existing behavior.

This is why I'm so surprised at your vehement opposition.

I think the problem is that there are actually _two_ issues, which have
become conflated:

  [1] Adding support to the byte-code interpreter, so that it's possible
      to do efficient lexical binding.  This support only _adds_
      functionality, and _changes no existing behavior_ -- elisp
      programs will continue to run exactly the same as they ever have,
      because nothing has changed.  Elisp programs are is still
      dynamically bound.

  [2] Changing the _default behavior_ of the byte-compiler to make local
      variables lexically bound by default (presumably using support
      added in [1]).  This _will_ change behavior.

While I can understand your opposition to [2], because it will
inevitably create compatibility problems (even if they are minor), I
don't understand your opposition to [1].

My main goal here is [1].  If I were the maintainer of emacs, I'd like
to do [2] as well, but it's not really necessary.

> It will be a struggle for me to find the time to maintain Emacs.  So I
> will have to reject changes that might eat up more of my time.

You are not maintaining emacs alone; there are others helping you
(including me).

-Miles
-- 
Suburbia: where they tear out the trees and then name streets after them.



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