Bug#170773: CWEB Emacs mode

[Olaf Weber <olaf@infovore.xs4all.nl>]

Frank Küster writes:

> Hi Olaf,
> in the Debian BTS we have a suggestion to update cweb.el in
> web2c/cwebdir/ to a version that works better with current emacsen.  The
> file can be found at
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi/cwebm.el?bug=170773&msg=3&att=1,
> the m in the name should be dropped to replace Knuth's original cweb.el,
> if the license allows this (I hope it does).

I'm not sure it does (see web2c/cwebdir/README).  However, the _only_
reason that this file is in the web2c source tree is that is is part
of the original cweb source which I unpacked there.  (In other words:
historical reasons.)  The contents of this directory are pretty inert,
note for example that when building/installing web2c the makefile in
web2c/cwebdir doesn't get used at all, and even the manual page we
install doesn't come from there, but from web2c/man/cweb.man instead.

Thomas and I discussed whether c++lib.w should be installed, and my
take is that it should just be shipped in texmf-dist/cweb instead of
installing from the web2c source tree.  (And I would not be surprised
if it is in dire need of updating, given that C++ has changed a bit
over the years.)

My position of cweb.el is similar: the copy in the web2c source tracks
the original source.  It is not going to be automatically installed,
among other reasons because it is quite likely that you need a much
newer version than what is there.

-- 
Olaf Weber

               (This space left blank for technical reasons.)