Follow-up Comment #5, bug #10593 (project make):
Of course this creates a backward compatibility problem if it is fixed. It is
a change to existing behavior. For any such change, we can contrive code which
depends on the old behavior.
For instance, when ISO C added // comments in 1999, it broke code such as
a//*comment*/b which denotes the division a/b.
If any such a change is forbidden, then it leaves the language development
hamstrung against fixing certain kinds of bugs and improvements.
The improvements still happen, but in kludgy ways which are like legs growing
out of a forehead. You always have to think: if I started with a clean slate,
not saddled by backward compatibility, could I still justify doing it this
way?
The way to address this is to have some controls over the language dialect.
For instance, GNU Make could have a command line option for emulating a prior
version. As well as a special variable that cold be deposited into a Makefile.
Say, --emulate=3.81 or __GMAKE_EMULATE := 3.81.
Someone whose code breaks because of a fix like this can use the mechanism as
a quick workaround.
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