Re: auth-source.el and eieio

[Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>]

On Tue, 15 Feb 2011 09:11:02 +0100 Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> wrote: 

RS> On Mon, Feb 14 2011, Ted Zlatanov wrote:
>> On Mon, 14 Feb 2011 14:20:53 -0800 Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> wrote: 
LI> If this can be done cleanly (i.e., a lib directory that dgnushack.el
LI> figures out whether to add to the load path (or not)), then I think
LI> including it would be the way to go.

RS> It is likely to lead to load-path shadows with weird effects.
RS> [ Just imagine compiling Gnus from git on a system with several Emacs
RS> versions (e.g. Debian-based systems).  The user will probably compile
RS> with the oldest Emacs and run the compiled version of Gnus with all
RS> versions.  With the newer Emacs, Gnus' EIEIO files will probably
RS> shadow the newer ones from Emacs. ]

We'll have to keep Gnus' EIEIO current.  Since it hasn't changed much in
2 years I think it's not a big burden.  We can actually start pulling
all the EIEIO files from the Emacs Bazaar tree so we are in sync with
the *Emacs* version of EIEIO.  That's probably the safest way and it
would only be additional work for Yamaoka-san.

RS> Would it be feasible to split auth-source.el into a basic version
RS> (compatible with older Emacs version without EIEIO; with at least the
RS> features we have in auth-source.el bundled with Emacs 23.3) and an
RS> advanced version.  The advanced version would not be used with older
RS> Emacsen.  Gnus should check at runtime what is available.  It is okay
RS> if new features are not available with the basic version (like with
RS> shr.el).

I can do it, but as I keep saying, my fight is to bring EIEIO's defclass
into Gnus.  I think it would improve Gnus (or at least my code)
significantly to have it.  So this kind of hack would really be my last
resort if EIEIO is judged unsuitable for inclusion in Gnus.

So far, everyone seems kind of wary but not strongly against it.  Can we
try it and see if Steinar and other pre-23.2 users find it usable?

Yamaoka-san, WDYT?  Can you set up the EIEIO pull into gnus/lib/ or is
that a bother (I can do it too)?  I can set up the list of all the
required libraries with you and will modify the build process to DTRT.

Thanks
Ted