RE: Deprecate _emacs on Windows

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Drew Adams writes:

 > I objected to _warning_ users simply because you are deprecating
 > `_emacs'.

In all the projects I know of, your understanding of "how deprecation
is done" notwithstanding, deprecation's semantic content is issuing a
warning.  Formal deprecation is a policy statement that this feature
should *not* be used, *will* be removed, and any current uses should
be ported to the appropriate idiom, and yes, that should indeed get a
warning.

It should be possible to suppress those warnings (it is, in Python and
XEmacs), but the warning should be issued if the user chooses not to
suppress.

 > That's not something to warn about.  There is no danger.

OK, Drew, put

(if (< (random 100) 1) (error "Your .emacs is no longer usable."))

as the first line in your .emacs.  When it triggers, come back and
tell us how you happy you are about losing use of your init file
without warning until it actually happens.  Just how often do you
think long-time users read the section about what the name of the init
file is, anyway?  Or NEWS?

The issue really *is* whether the feature should be removed, and
therefore deprecation and the accompanying warning are warranted, not
whether a deprecation deserves a warning.  Personally, I think _emacs
is harmless, and deprecating it is indeed crying wolf, but that's not
my decision.