RE: Question about updating ascii.el file on the wiki

[Drew Adams]

> There's  great little module I keep in my arsenal called ascii.el
> http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ascii.el
> 
> It hasn't been updated since Apr 5, '07. When I compile it 
> under 23.1.1, it complained about a few obsolete functions,
> so, I look the liberty of fixing them.
> 
> In the spirit of giving back, should I upload it under a new 
> filename? Or do I need to contact the author and hope he's
> still alive? Does anyone care?

I would recommend contacting Vinicius (the author and maintainer in this case)
with your patch.  He's pretty good about updating to fix problems you point out.

Contacting the author/maintainer makes him/her aware of the problem and the
proposed fix.  It means the fix will be made at the source, so it is more likely
to be applied everywhere the library might be posted.  It is also courteous and
respectful of the copyright.

If you try but cannot locate the author/maintainer, that's a different story.
In that case, I'd suggest applying your fix but commenting it well with your
name and date.  That helps users understand which version they have and how it
got that way.

Be aware too that sometimes using an "obsolete" function might still be the
right thing for some library.  Also, replacing an "obsolete" function by a newer
one that is not available for older Emacs versions can break the code for use in
those versions.  The author/maintainer might prefer to use code that is
conditional in such a case.  In sum, updating wrt "obsolete" functions is not
necessarily cut-and-dried.