Re: [POLL] Use compat.el in Org? (was: Useful package? Compat.el)

[Daniel Mendler <mail@daniel-mendler.de>]

On 1/30/23 20:40, Greg Minshall wrote:
> i see, yes.  i'm just thinking that, for a given release CUR (like i
> know anything about org-mode release procedures!)  we would use whatever
> has been available in compat.el since release CUR-n (for whatever n we
> use -- 2?), and supplement that, in org-compat.el, with whatever other
> compatibility features *we* (org-mode) need to support releases [CUR-n
> .. CUR].
> 
> (and, presumably, contribute whatever might be appropriate from
> org-compat.el to compat.el, so we can prune it out from org-compat.el at
> some future point in time.)

Sounds good. But note that Compat will at some point have sufficient
coverage of the existing APIs, such that Org may not miss anything. From
then on new additions will only be made at the time of a new Emacs
release. The current Compat already supports many Emacs 29 APIs, which
is in time for the upcoming pretest. Compat won't add any APIs which are
still part of the unstable development master branch (before the branch
cut and feature freeze), which reduces the need for coordination.

If you are missing something right now, and want to introduce and use a
new backported function, e.g., something new from Emacs 29, instead of
going via the org-compat indirection, you could also make an addition
directly to Compat, a Compat release can be prepared a short while
after, and then you start using the new function in the Org development
version.

Daniel