Re: {Spam?} Re: [Customize] [info] doesn't work

[Stefan]

>>> I think `Info-goto-node' should have an autoload cookie.  I grepped
>>> the source tree and there are many places where `info' is loaded
>>> explicitly before calling `Info-goto-node'.  This will be unnecessary
>>> with an autoload cookie.
>> 
>> I believe all those cases could/should call `info' instead which *is*
>> autoloaded and accepts pretty much the same syntax.

> I prefer `info' over `Info-goto-node' too, but the problem is that
> most uses of `Info-goto-node' are in separate packages distributed
> with Emacs: Gnus, MH-E, URL, Calc, Ediff.  Changing them within Emacs

We're in bug-fix mode AFAIK, and those packages seem to work just fine with
the current code, so I wouldn't worry about it.  If I cared enough I'd
change them in the Emacs CVS repository to use `info' for URL and Calc
(which are maintained directly from the Emacs reposotory) and send a patch
to the maintainers of the other three.

> might cause merge conflicts, and convincing maintainers of these
> packages to change the function name is not so easy since I don't see
> a strong argument for them to change `Info-goto-node' to almost
> equivalent `info'.

It's probably going to be even harder to convince them to remove the
(require 'info) since it wouldn't work in current Emacsen.

> And there are countless Emacs packages not distributed with Emacs where
> attempts to change `Info-goto-node' to `info' are futile.

Yes, there's a lot of bad code out there, but I don't see why we should try
to improve support for bad code.  It's bad enough having to preserve
backward compatibility with it.


        Stefan