Re: Merging feature/android

[Po Lu]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

> We have no responsibility to support any particular compiler other
> than GCC.  We can do so when we wish.

That's not what the GNU Coding Standards say:

  An exception to this rule are the large, established programs (such as
  Emacs) which run on a great variety of systems. Using GNU extensions
  in such programs would make many users unhappy, so we don’t do that.

  Another exception is for programs that are used as part of
  compilation: anything that must be compiled with other compilers in
  order to bootstrap the GNU compilation facilities. If these require
  the GNU compiler, then no one can compile them without having them
  installed already. That would be extremely troublesome in certain
  cases.

> If someone sends us patches to support compiler BARCC, and they are
> simple enough, we will probably install them just to be helpful.  But
> if it isn't easy. we should say "no thanks".

In this specific case, the patch being discussed is a configure test to
disable an Emacs feature when a GCC extension is not present.  That's
very easy.