Hi Tim, Thanks for looking at the warnings. > Can I have some clarity on exactly what level of bacwards version > compatibility we want?
I think we have been through this before, and I added a note to the README file about the version compatibility that we have in effect for the 8.2.x releases. I defer to Ulrich on deciding version compatibility issues. > I think this is relevant because it can impact on how > we 'fix' some of the warnings. For example, if the warning is for something > that is now obsolete in versions we support, we can just remove it or change > it to whatever it should now be. However, if it is something that is still > part of a version we want to support, then we probably need to put some > version branching, i.e. use eval-and-compile etc. What I normally do is to create a "vm-" version of the primitive where version-based branching is contained. See the revision 836 and its internal revisions, especially the primitives added to vm-misc.el, for how we do this. > Secondly, if we do need to put version dependent code in, can we assume VM is > always run as a compiled binary i.e. can use eval-when-compile rather than > eval-and-compile or would it be preferrable to just use eval-and-compile? We > currently have both in the code. For this situation, I would tend to go with > eval-and-compile as it is sometimes useful when debugging/developing to run > interpreted and not byte compiled code. I don't think we can assume that VM is run as a compiled binary. Some users prefer to use it uncompiled. Plus, we use it uncompiled during the development itself, to enable tracing and all that. > Is using these two macros the correct way to handle version dependent code? We would like to avoid version-dependent binaries if at all possible, because it is a pain to maintain multiple binaries. If something is really needed at comiple-time for performance, then yes, but otherwise it is best to postpone the checks to run-time. > PPPS. I find this encoding stuff complex and confusing and really > don't understand it that well, though I've been lazy and an arrogant > english speaker! Fortunately, we have Ulrich who knows this stuff well. Cheers, Uday _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~vm Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~vm More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
