Re: Emacs on OS X development

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Óscar Fuentes <address@hidden>
> Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 06:48:07 +0200
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> >> I'll suggest to use different branches for every port (including MS
> >> Windows).
> >
> > IMNSHO, this is a bad idea.  Its only sure consequence will be
> > divergence and bitrot of code, at least for MS Windows, because none
> > of the people who care about that port have time to invest on merges.
> 
> If platform-specific code is well isolated, almost all merges are
> conflict-less, automatic operations.

That's true, but in Emacs, most of the platform-specific code is not
isolated.  In fact, it is rarely even marked as platform-specific.
The display engine is a good example.

Another pertinent example is the way whole portions of code are copied
from xfns.c to w32fns.c and back, with minor changes.  The same goes
for w32term.c and xterm.c (and the ns* files as well).

> I don't see how using a branch instead of #ifdef's with its associated
> platform-specific macro definitions makes any difference here.

That's too bad.

> With the current setup hackers working on GNU/Linux are oblivious of
> bugs that manifest only on MS Windows and depend on reports from
> other hackers or users.

That's not the dynamics you see now on emacs-devel and bug-gnu-emacs.

Separating ports will lead to alienation and lack of communications
very fast.