Re: Hourglass only for X-windows?

[Lennart Borgman]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jason Rumney" <address@hidden>


> "Lennart Borgman" <address@hidden> writes:
>
> > I find it very hard to guess what this define is for without reading the
> > code. Using names like HAVE_MOUSE, HAVE_HOURGLASS makes it much more
easy to
> > guess IMO. And I think that is important if you are scanning the code
> > quickly trying to find things, see the structure etc.
>
> Conditional compilation constants are not comments. They are not there to
> assist your reading of the code, they are there to enable that code
> when appropriate. For that purpose, it is actually clearer to have the
> constants named so that the conditions under which that code is
> enabled is obvious. Having hourglass code surrounded by HAVE_HOURGLASS
> is not adding anything, because the actual conditions under which
> hourglass cursors are available depend on the platform, not some
> configure test. Also someone debugging why hourglass cursors do
> not work on a Mac might miss the fact that they are only enabled on X
> and W32, that is not likely if we list the real conditions under which
> that code is enabled.

I do not think you can escape that the constant names have a comment purpose
too. The names should of course be choosen so that it is as easy as possible
to change and read the code. Constants like HAVE_WINDOW_SYSTEM, HAVE_MOUSE
or HAVE_SOUND are currently set up by the configuration code.in config.in. I
believed they had purposes hinted by their names. Maybe those names are
misleading? Maybe it is bad practice and maybe those names should be
removed? I actually can not see that they are used on w32 (just looking at
config.h and makefile).

I currently perhaps have some problems with the code submitted by Jan D for
enabling hourglass when using "M-x  indent-region". Hourglass is actually
shown, but I wonder if I did something wrong since the messages about "10%"
etc are not shown. I wonder if I missed some piece of the hourglass code
somewhere? It would have been easier for me if that code had been surrounded
by HAVE_HOURGLASS - if and only if (of course) the definition of
HAVE_HOURGLASS was very clear.

Can someone please tell me if the problem above exists on X Windows as well?