Compatability history

Have you ever noticed how hard it can be to find out which versions of software (a) were compatible with which versions of software (b)?

Documentation for software that is meant to interoperate with other software generally says something about which version(s) of the counterpart it works with, but no one has any particular reason to keep a list of the history of that relationship.

What brought this on, you ask?

I'm trying to modernize my Emacs configuration file (for which there are many luxurious options) any have reasonably uniform behavior across the several systems I work on and home and work. Alas, customer requirements at work mean I need to deal with systems dating from 2014 (and we're happy they've finally gotten serious about migrating off that platform from 2010).

All those, aforementioned, luxurious ways to configure a modern Emacs system (Spacemacs, Doom Emacs, and other "distributions") require you to be using, well, a modern version of Emacs. By which they mean v25 is definitely out and v26,fi supported at all, will soon by unsupported.

So I'm trying to do it for myself. My strategy depend on several things:

• add-package to centralize the configuration
• straight as a way to get packages
• the identification semantic categories of behavior I'd like my emacs to have and the understanding that those behaviors could be provided by different packages for different Emacs versions
• a system for selecting implementations of those categories by Emacs version number

I expect to make the project publicly available pretty soon.

But let's say my category is language server services. Popular suppliers seem to be eglot and lsp-mode. If I want to use lsp-mode on a up-to-date Emacs I'll just let straight grab the newest release of the package. But the newest version relies on variable that are not in Emacs 26, so I need an older version, but how do I learn which tag straight should get for those system?

And the problem repeats for every behavior which isn't handled internally.

Which, I suppose, is why the big distributions tell you "Use a modern Emacs, already!", albeit usually in more diplomatic terms.

Changing media landscapes and "smart" TVs

We have two smart (or at least occasionally clever) TVs in the house. Neither of them was a fancy model because we got the first one while I was still badly underpaid and we got the second one while I still had the habits of the badly underpaid.¹ One of them simply has a fixed set of apps in it'e ROM; upgrades are not possible, but then neither are certain classes of persistent attacks that require the attacker to make local changes.² The other, the older one as it happens, has a loadable app system, but the manufacturer has stopped updating the existing apps or providing new ones.

Our daughter watches various shows on her tablet and on our TVs. Because they are smart TVs we're able to, for instance, bring up things on Netflix. We haven't felt the need to restrict her screen-time yet because (a) her pre-school is a screen-free zone and (b) she spends as much or more of her time at home engaged in play with physical toys as she does on screens. We figure as long as she is becoming adept at the real world we won't fret about her interest in the virtual world (though we do curate what apps she can have on her tablet).

Anyway. The kiddo has some new favorite shows that are on a platform that is new to us. Putting it on our laptops and her tablet is easy enough, but we can't get it on either TV because it wasn't a thing when they froze the available content.

Which is a problem.

I'm thinking that in the future I'll get a dumb TV well supplied with ports so that I can plug in a computer of some kind (be it a streaming stick, a raspberry pi, or some kind of mini IPX machine). so that we can upgrade the "smarts" for as long as the display is useful. Unless some manufacturer is making smart TVs based on an open platform. Anyone know? For that matter are their any streaming sticks built on open platforms?

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¹ Honestly I"m trying to hold onto certain of those habits even though our financial situation is rather improved. The trick it to figure out which of those habits are a good idea in general and which would be better replaced by buying a little further upscale.

² If I had known this about it prior to buying I might have hesitated. But it was a deal of the day Woot just when we needed a larger TV, so the clock was ticking. It is, at least, a nice display.