Re: defvars at compile time

[Stefan Monnier]

>> Emacs-21 should complain indeed, but Emacs-CVS
>> shouldn't (because it recognizes the (if (boundp ..) ..) form).

> Yes it is.  But Gnus CVS supports Emacs 21 and XEmacs, so we
> have to do something to avoid a compile warning.

Well, I'd have to strongly disagree with "have to".  Nothing forces you to
remove all compilation warnings for all supported emacsen.

>> I.e. it's a bad solution.
> I think the reason it is bad is only that it might take more
> time than directly referring the value of the variable.

It's much worse than that.  It's fundamentally wrong to make code less
readable for the sake of compiler warnings.  Compiler warnings are there to
help you find bad code and improve it.  Not to make code uglier and harder
to maintain.  The primacy should be with the code, not with the
compiler warnings.


        Stefan