Re: Why have a #if .... #else .... #endif construct in Emacs Lisp, when we could make the existing code DTRT unchanged?

[tomas]

On Mon, Sep 04, 2023 at 08:30:25PM -0400, Richard Stallman wrote:
> [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
> [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
> [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]
> 
>   > How about making the byte compiler recognize the construct
>  
>   >  (if (< emacs-major-version NUMBER) ...)
> 
>   > and do this optimization on it?
> 
> People seem not to have considered this seriously, but I have not seen
> any serious discussion of a drawback.  What flaw or drawback do people
> see in it?  It should optimize the existing the existing code with no
> change at all.  Isn't that just perfect?

I did offer one: checking for a version number is actually a placeholder
for the feature your code cares about. Better be up-front in the test
and let the reader know what your code's needs are.

Cheers
-- 
t

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