Re: Allows minimum-length to work for end-of-line spanners. (issue 7453046)

[Janek Warchoł]

Hi all,

On Wed, Apr 3, 2013 at 12:57 AM,  <address@hidden> wrote:
> On 2013/04/02 22:34:53, janek wrote:
>> This should not be an excuse for broken code, but i think that we
>> can accept patches that are iterations towards Ultimate Solution.
>
> This one is an iteration away from a proper solution since it
> increases the inconsistency of minimum-length.
>
>> As i see it, Mike's patch doesn't make matters worse - it's just a
>> piece of duct tape to make a temporary solution (i.e. current messy
>> code) less broken.
>
> No, it makes it _more_ broken in order to paper over an annoying
> consequence of the brokenness.
>
>> I think that we could add a FIXME to it and accept it, because it's
>> not making future rewrite harder (at least it seems so to me).
>
> How does an increase in the inconsistency of minimum-length _not_ make
> a future rewrite harder?
>
>> Also, we're trying to make a stable release soon, so this is not a
>> good time to start rewriting big pieces of code.
>
> It is not a good time shoving in behavior that is not going to survive
> into the next stable release (assuming that this _is_ going to be
> fixed in a sensible manner) either.  The behavior of our stable
> releases should not be erratic but rather increasingly reliable.

Well, i don't insist on sharing my point of view.  I think we can
agree to differ.

>> However, if we only accepted code changes that were implementing the
>> Ultimate Solution, i'm afraid that the development process would
>> grind to a halt - Ultimate Solutions are obvioulsly best, but they
>> take much much more time to implement, and usually only experts can
>> write them.
>
> That's the ultimate excuse to never bother about doing things right.

Hmm.  What about doing something constructive, then?
There is one big "let's do things right" patch that needs review.
Despite a lot of effort spent by its author on writing a detailed
description to attract reviewers, only one person cared to review it:
codereview.appspot.com/7768043

best,
Janek