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by uludag
582 days ago
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I was reflecting on this article, thinking about what software tools and languages I use that reflect this property, and a weird realization came to mind: Emacs lisp is by far the best language I use in this regard. I literally copy-pasted 20+ year code, eval it, and every time it just works. Then if I want to debug it: C-u C-M-x, and I'm instantly stepping through the code. Something this old shouldn't have this property. Nothing "modern" even comes close. Look at the top languages, Python, JavaScript, and Java, and you don't even have to consider too much how abysmal these languages are in this regards. |
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It's not an accident -- reading through the emacs-devel mailing list, it's easy to see how much effort the maintainers pour into backward compatibility. It's one of Emacs' unspoken guiding principles[1].
At the same time, it's not that surprising either. Emacs does not have other objectives that more modern languages/ecosystems do: no revenue or growth targets, corporations or VCs breathing down its neck, or a mandate to be "modern". Its most vocal and experienced users, who are also its volunteer maintainers, decide what its priorities should be. Since they've been using it for decades, backward compatibility is high on the list.
[1]: It's "spoken" guiding principles being to further the goals of the GNU project.