Re: XEmacs builds failing - gnus-spec.el

[Katsumi Yamaoka <yamaoka@jpl.org>]

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Hi Mike,

mike.kupfer@xemacs.org wrote:
> Katsumi Yamaoka wrote:

>> But please let me say, the fact is that some new Gnus features
>> no longer work on XEmacs (even if the code is compiled with no
>> error).  Typical ones are the features that use url.el.

> Hi Katsumi, is this true for XEmacs 21.5, or just 21.4?  Are these all
> new features in Ma Gnus,

As for url.el originated in W3, the code is too old to use with
Gnus for both 21.5 and 21.4.  I don't think `url-retrieve' that
gnus-compat.el redefines helps.  A workaround attached below is
the one I used to use, but I'm not sure if they are still useful
since I haven't been using XEmacs for a couple of years.  For
the same reason, and since I failed to have taken notes, I don't
recall other matters I faced.  But it is not hard to imagine
there are inconsistencies here and there, since most Gnus
developers are GNU Emacs users and they like to use Emacs' new
features (also it sometimes causes Gnus not to work for old GNU
Emacsen).

> or are older versions of Gnus also affected?

If it is the Gnus XEmacs package, I believe it's safe.  I have
no basis for it, though.

> Are there any bug reports that you can point me at?

I'm no longer suitable for doing it, sorry.  The foremost reason
I got not to use XEmacs is that now I'm using Cygwin for almost
daytime (in the office).  On that platform, I was unable to build
XEmacs 21.5 that works normally.  It frequently crashes.
(Even so, I kept building it periodically keeping track of hg.
 However, it stopped months ago because it got unable to build
 on the latest Cygwin.)

>> As for
>> XEmacs 21.4, I feel it like old GNU Emacsen that Gnus dropped
>> the support long ago.

> Yes, 21.4 is quite old.  If it's too much of a hassle for the Gnus
> developers to support, then maybe it's best to drop support for it.
> Then whatever time is available for XEmacs support can be focused on
> 21.5.

That's good to here from the XEmacs team. :)  The only matter is
that there might be no Gnus developers who use 21.5.

Regards,


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