[454] in Release_7.7_team
Re: emacs 18
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mike Barker)
Fri Apr 5 11:43:56 1996
To: sol24@MIT.EDU, release-team@MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 05 Apr 1996 11:43:44 EST
From: Mike Barker <mbarker@MIT.EDU>
I'd like to thank Greg for taking the initiative to check on building
emacs 18 for Solaris 2.4. He has provided us with a valuable fallback
position in case we have trouble with the move to emacs 19. Good
work!
I want to reiterate, though, that we should not slow down or otherwise
quit moving towards emacs 19 as the default for Solaris 2.4. I
believe we have already made significant progress towards changing to
emacs 19 and there are still sufficient reasons to continue this work.
Specifically, the SGI platform has been using emacs 19 as the default
editor. We need to upgrade the Solaris platform to stay in synch.
Also, while upgrading to emacs 19 this summer means that we must move
quickly to make it available for testing on the packs and then in
switching the defaults, I don't believe that postponing this move
again gains us any benefit. There are already sufficient users of
emacs 19 to assure us that it is highly usable, and we are under
pressure to not fall too far behind the users.
I would also point out that making this change at the same time as the
change to Solaris 2.4 keeps us from having to make two large changes
at different times. Changes in documentation, training, etc. can thus
be combined.
I am well aware that there may be pressure to re-open the question of
whether or not to change the default to emacs19 on Solaris 2.4 this
summer. If anyone wants to argue this again with me, please first
write down the issues and your reasoning and send me email. Then
we'll set up a time to look at the issues.
So, while I will repeat that Greg has provided us with a valuable
fallback, we should not stop moving forward.
We will make emacs19 available on the packs soon for testing and early
use.
And we will make emacs19 the default on Athena this summer.
Thanks
Mike
