Re: Suppressing native compilation (short and long term)

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Rob Browning <rlb@defaultvalue.org>
> Cc: monnier@iro.umontreal.ca, david@tethera.net, emacs-devel@gnu.org,
>  akrl@sdf.org
> Date: Sun, 02 Oct 2022 12:15:27 -0500
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> > Battery consumption doesn't seem very relevant, because JIT
> > compilation will happen when the system is used, not when it sleeps.
> > And it is entirely not guaranteed that by compiling everything you
> > will save power in the long run, because there are good chances you
> > will be compiling stuff that won't be used for a long time.  Without
> > quantitative data of long-term power usage on which to base the
> > conclusions, I don't see why you should a-priori assume that compiling
> > everything from the get-go should use less power.  Same goes for disk
> > space by multiple users.
> 
> On this particular topic, I was actually just communicating a concern
> that was communicated to me -- that a user wasn't happy about the
> unpredictable, compilation spike long after the install on their laptop,
> (in part due to concerns about power consumption).

That's just something that takes getting used to.

> (Personally, as a user, I'd also prefer to pay the cost up front, most
>  of the time, during package install, and to avoid per-user duplications
>  where possible, but that said, I generally do try to avoid basing
>  Debian packaging decisions solely on my preferences, and I do want to
>  try to favor upstream preferences in general.)

Those seem like old habit that die hard, IMO.  For users of some
programming languages, JIT compilation is routine, and I bet they
don't share these habits.