[Nix-dev] Re: Is Emacs 22 still needed?

[Marc Weber]

Excerpts from ludo's message of Thu Aug 26 17:27:25 +0200 2010:
> Hello!
> 
> Peter Simons <simons at cryp.to> writes:
> 
> > is anyone aware of a reason why we should week Emacs 22 in nixpkgs?
> 
> Someone could need it, e.g., because of some incompatibility or because
> some Emacs mode hasn’t been upgraded to 23.  That’s arguably becoming
> less and less likely, but who knows.
> 
> > As far as I can tell, the package is unused;
> 
> But you can’t actually tell.  :-)
> 
> > version 23 has been the default for quite a while now. To simplify
> > matters, I'd like to remove the old version.
> 
> I don’t use 22 but I wonder to what extent keeping it is a burden.
> What do you think?

I think we should not keep things just because it's no burden.
Because everything is a burden in some way which does exist.

I think we should have a clear vision what nixpkgs is about.
We should know about its identity.

If we think about nixpkgs serving people we don't know - and which don't
talk to us - we may ignore them. (IMHO) - or we should try to find a way
to make them talk to us: Eg by providing a command:
nixpks-tell-about-my-packages-in-store-cause-im-still-using-them.

A simple way to manage this would be a maintainer adding
# don't think anybody is still using this package
# I propose removing it 2010-12.

and sending a mail to the mailinglist.

Someone who relies on a package has a chance to reply then - and we
don't end up maintaining packages which are superseded (eg by emacs-23).

Maybe we can even create a Wiki page titled
"packages marked for removal".

Until now the way to do it was "remove and see whether someone yells"

Happened to me with php-5.3 - ok, it was also a style issue I didn't
share.

It doesn't matter what happened in the past. It matters how we want to
cope with this situation (which will occur many times) in the future.

So talk about how you'd like to be notified about package removals - so
that you have time to say "I'm still using it".

Maybe we can put a policy like info text on the wiki later.

I'm reading the mailinglist. So for me asking on the ml would be enough.

Marc Weber