[m-dev.] shims

[Zoltan Somogyi]

On Thu, 18 Sep 2014 00:54:34 +1000, Mark Brown <mark at mercurylang.org> wrote:
> > Unfortunately, just deciding what import_statuses need to be handled
> > requires ALL of them to be understood when writing the code :-(
> 
> You've already said the invariants are only understood by Fergus, and
> yet plenty of developers have committed code involving
> import_statuses. Evidently the bar is not set that high in practice.

The invariants I was referring to were more about the (invisible)
structure of the item list than about import_statuses themselves.
And obviously they were not invisible to Fergus.

And overall, I am not saying that conditional compilation is
not a good idea. I am just saying that one shouldn't start
implementing it without understanding how much work
it will be. A half-done implementation that you have to leave
because of other pressing concerns benefits noone.

Zoltan.