Re: Incompatible change without "warning"

[Nick Roberts]

 >      I see XEmacs has
 >     define-obsolete-function-alias so we could do:
 > 
 > Compatibility adds an additional reason.
 > So please add define-obsolete-function-alias.
 > Please give it arguments compatible with XEmacs.

I have added define-obsolete-function-alias to byte-run.el

I have not provided documentation because I would like guidance:

Me> These two functions are so similar to the two that I've just documented,
Me> externally at least, that I wonder if they could be described somewhere
Me> centrally in the Lisp manual i.e a link from the nodes 'Defining
Me> Variables' and 'Defining Functions'to one called 'Obsoletion'.

The current documentation for these related functions uses different argument
names which I think is confusing:

Manual:
 - Function: defvaralias alias-var base-var &optional docstring

Documentation string:
 (defvaralias symbol aliased &optional docstring)

Shall I change these to

Manual:
 - Function: defvaralias variable new &optional docstring

Documentation string:
 (defvaralias variable new &optional docstring)

for consistency with make-obsolete-variable, define-obsolete-variable-alias?

The manual says:

`string-to-int' is an obsolete alias for this function. (string-to-number)

but string-to-int has not been made obsolete.

Some variables/functions have been obsolete since 19.15. Is now a good time
to purge them?

Nick