RE: On obsoleting defcustoms

[Stefan Kangas]

Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:

> Obsolete should mean still works and is still supported,
> but is no longer being actively developed.  Desupport
> means the code supporting it is gone and we raise an
> error instead.

Is "desupported" defined in Emacs development?  Searching online, I
was only able to find that word used in reference to Oracle Database.

I think we talk about "making obsolete" and "removing" a
variable/function/face, and their definitions are:

a) Obsolete means the byte-compiler warns about their use
b) Removed means it no longer exists

Note that we have many obsolete variables that are declared to be "no
longer used", that is, they have no effect.  You are free to argue
against the status quo, of course, but that is what we have.

> If it doesn't work then users deserve the runtime error.

I don't think raising a run-time error is wise just because we decided
that a variable should have no effect.  That would mean gratuitously
breaking code that might otherwise be working.  It is better to allow
for a grace period by raising an obsoletion warning.

> I don't see how that helps users.

The point IMO is that advertising features that we are planning to
remove does not help users.  On the contrary, we should recommend
moving away from obsolete features.