Re: mem*/strr*/etc... obsolete warnings

[Mike Frysinger]

On Saturday 17 January 2009 15:24:36 Bruno Haible wrote:
> Mike Frysinger wrote on 2009-01-04:
> > a bunch of modules were labeled as obsolete recently, but no information
> > was included explaining why.
>
> They were marked obsolete because the problems that they fix don't occur
> any more on the platform that are reasonable porting targets now. In other
> words, the doc/posix-functions/$FUNC.texi file does not list a problem.

i know why the modules are marked obsolete because i spent time googling 
around and reading threads ... it was more a rhetorical statement to highlight 
that the current situation is confusing and real info is not readily available 
to the consumers of gnulib.

> > perhaps the toplevel NEWS should be updated
>
> Why? It's not an incompatible change when a module becomes obsolete. You
> can continue to use it.

if a tool has something marked as "obsolete" and throws up a warning, then it 
means that the code being warned about needs to change in someway.  otherwise 
the tool shouldnt be throwing a warning in the first place.

> > as well
> > as the "Notice" section of each module pointing people to the place for
> > more information and/or just telling them why right there ...
>
> The "more information" is the documentation. For example, for 'memchr':
>
>   Gnulib module: memchr
>
>   Portability problems fixed by Gnulib:
>   @itemize
>   @item
>   This function is missing on some older platforms.
>   @end itemize

none of this indicates why the module is marked obsolete.  if anything, it 
makes it seem like the module shouldnt be obsolete at all.  after all, the 
documentation states that not all platforms have this function and that's the 
point of gnulib in the first place: to make sure modules of code are always 
available to the project using gnulib.

> What extra information would you find useful here?

the simple explanation you posted in your e-mail should be in the 
documentation.  and the modules file should point people to that section of 
the documentation so that it shows up in the warning when they run the gnulib-
tool.
-mike

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