Re: [Emacs-diffs] /srv/bzr/emacs/trunk r111086: gmm-utils.el (gmm-flet, gmm-labels): New macros.

[Richard Stallman]

    The problem with defadvice is that it overrides functions.  The letf
    cases we're talking about also override functions, so they're just as
    nasty as uses of defadvice.  Worse, they don't even announce themselves
    in the docstring and they often remove themselves before you get
    a chance to see that some overriding is going on.

The reason it is bad for the Emacs sources to override functions in
the Emacs sources is that it makes for confusion in debugging.  Thus
my decision many years ago that the Emacs sources should not contain
any advice for functions.  I considered every use of defadvice in the
Emacs source code as a problem to be fixed.  I did not fix them all,
only for lack of time.

I think the same argument applies to letf.  So the Emacs sources
should not contain advice or letf.

Users can use these features -- the only people they might confuse
are themselves, and we can leave it up to them to decide whether to
take that risk.  However, in our code, we should handle these
situations in other ways.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin St
Boston MA 02110
USA
www.fsf.org  www.gnu.org
Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software.
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