Re: Committing new smtpmail.el later tonight

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:19:59 +0300 Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> wrote: 

EZ> That is fine for newcomers to smtpmail.  But put myself in my shoes: I
EZ> configured my smtpmail years ago, and don't even remember the name of
EZ> my SMTP server, let alone the password.  People like me will not be
EZ> amused if their old setup suddenly stops working until they dust out
EZ> old instructions.

The variable is obsoleted.  Isn't that the normal way to do it, possibly
annoying people?  It's not particularly hard to migrate the info
yourself, as I mentioned.

EZ> Unlike other software, Emacs didn't until now break customizations in
EZ> such a way, not without some sort of interim period when users were
EZ> told to migrate.

Since 24.x is a major release, maybe it's OK.  How would you do it?

On Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:51:29 +0300 Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> wrote: 

EZ> Why do we have to have this incompatibility?  Why cannot
EZ> smtpmail-auth-credentials continue be supported, in addition to the
EZ> new ~/.authinfo?  E.g., note the value of the variable and
EZ> automatically write ~/.authinfo?
>> 
>> I think that leaves `smtpmail-auth-credentials' in place, where it will
>> confuse the user.

EZ> How can my own customization on my own .emacs confuse me?

There are now two places where the credentials live, if we follow your
scheme.  You can forget about ~/.authinfo and modify
`smtpmail-auth-credentials' which won't work.  I think that's a bad
situation.

>> So IMO the conversion should also unset `smtpmail-auth-credentials'.

EZ> I see no need for that.  Emacs doesn't modify .emacs except during
EZ> explicit use of Customize.

I'm sure in at least a few places I've seen a defcustom set explicitly
and saved.  But the point is, we want to *migrate* and that implies
dropping the old settings.  Otherwise it's *copying*.

Ted