Re: gnutls status

[Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>]

On Fri, 26 Nov 2010 15:10:39 +0100 Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> wrote: 

LMI> Is 2.10.x at least backwards-compatible, so that if we do implement the
LMI> complicated 2.8.x features, it'll continue to work in the future, too?

Yes.  They try really hard to keep backwards compatibility.  I'd guess
for all 2.x releases we'll be OK unless there's newer features we simply
must have :)

>> I think every package should explicitly choose to support gnutls.el, it
>> shouldn't be an Emacs-wide choice.  There's too many configuration
>> options that depend on the purpose.  For instance IMAP and HTTPS have
>> really different security needs.

LMI> True.  On the other hand, look at `nnimap-open-connection' and weep.  It
LMI> started off as a simple function and grew into a monster.  That's why I
LMI> haven't adapted nntp/pop3/etc to use gnutls yet -- I don't want to have
LMI> to repeat the same code all over the place.

...thanks for working on proto-stream.el, it's made all this much simpler.

On Fri, 26 Nov 2010 13:51:09 +0100 Julien Danjou <julien@danjou.info> wrote: 

JD> My opinion is go with 2.10.

On Sat, 27 Nov 2010 09:28:11 -0500 Stefan Monnier <monnier@IRO.UMontreal.CA> wrote: 

>> So gnutls 2.10 will not be in Debian stable when Emacs 24 get released
>> (unless Emacs 24 is released after mid-2012). But most users won't try
>> to install Emacs 24 on it anyway.

SM> That's a good point.  Especially since gnutls is not indispensable for
SM> Emacs, so as long as we properly handle the case where the gnutls library
SM> to too old (either by not using it, or by using some fallback code),
SM> then I'm OK with it.

OK, I will put upgrading Emacs' support of GnuTLS to 2.10 on my TODO
list.  Which means it won't happen soon, so if anyone else is feeling
frisky, go ahead and do it.  I listed what's necessary in my original
e-mail here; basically it's callbacks but there's other features in the
2.10 API we should use if possible.

I think that supporting 2.8 is counterproductive so I'll happily target
only 2.10.  I think that's reasonable and doesn't put a big burden on
the users and distros.

Ted