Re: How about making `set-minibuffer-window' obsolete?

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hello, Eli.

On Wed, Mar 17, 2021 at 14:57:19 +0200, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2021 20:50:17 +0000
> > Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org
> > From: Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>

> > > I'd object to obsoleting a command just because it can be dangerous
> > > when used unwisely.

> > Every use of this command is unwise.  It cannot possibly do anything
> > useful.  It can only cause problems.

> I don't think I agree, not in this general form anyway.  The C code
> assigns values to minibuf_window in several places; this function is
> the Lisp counterpart of that.  If the C code can assign that variable,
> why cannot Lisp code do the same if it needs to?

The C code does it only under very carefully controlled circumstances
(such as when iconising a frame).

> With the current tendency to move stuff from C to Lisp, it is even
> less understandable why would you think this function's use in unwise.
> If you have specific reasons for that, please describe them in more
> detail.

> > Could I ask you, please, to reconsider?

> I might -- if I see some specific reasoning.  I didn't see that yet.

OK.  set-minibuffer-window, as it stands, has no function.  Maybe as an
alternative to obsoleting it, we could give it functionality - the
function could move an open minibuffer from one frame to another frame,
for example.  But I'm not sure what the use case is.  All the
minibuffer-follows-selected-frame stuff is done internally in minibuf.c.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).