Re: GNU ELPA package for CC-mode

[Stefan Monnier]

>> Search for "5.33" in the cc-mode.el of the master branch.
> Ah.  So it's metadata written into a source file.  I'm against this.
> Would it not be possible to store the version number elsewhere?
> Metadata in ordinary files is ugly and causes problems.  A significant
> one being that VCS logs get polluted by updates of metadata, making it
> unpleasant, or even difficult, to use a log display.

Not sure I understand: we currently have

    (defconst c-version "5.33.1"

in cc-defs.el.  In which way is this different?

> This "Version:" header certainly has no place in master, though I can
> see an argument being made for it being included in an ELPA version of
> CC Mode.

The purpose of this "Version:" header is to document for package.el
which version of the cc-mode package is bundled with Emacs so that it
can decide whether some other cc-mode ELPA package is more or
less recent (and hence whether to activate that other package or not).

So it very much belongs in `master`.

>> The generation of the new package happens when the "Version:" header
>> changes, so I don't think we want this header to be auto-generated on
>> every commit.
> "Changes" is a verb with an agent.  Under what scenario do you envisage
> this version number being changed?

Someone pushed a commit which changes that part of the file.

> Automatically upon a CC Mode commit to master is what I thought you
> had in mind.  Are you suggesting doing this by hand when it takes
> somebody's fancy?

Right: when you decide the code deserves a new GNU ELPA release.


        Stefan