Bug#482487: jed-extra: pcre.sl does not exist

[G. Milde]

On 22.05.08, Alan B. Clements wrote:

> Several Jed plugins (e.g. Info browser, man page viewer) do not function
> at all. They report the error:

> Unable to load /usr/share/jed/jed-extra/pcre.slc

This error message is somewhat misleading, as it comes from the call

  require("pcre");

in these modes which looks for either pcre.sl or pcre.slc in the jed
library path. 

(Check your jed library path e.g. with 
 M-X insert(get_jed_library_path);
) 

> After googling the problem it appears that the maintainers declared it no
> longer required and moved it to "jedpcre.sl".

Actually,

pcre.sl    is part of the package slsh and is installed
           under /usr/share/slsh/pcre.sl (but not preparsed to pcre.slc).

jedpcre.sl provides Perl compatible regexp search and for this requires the
           pcre.sl file. 
	   
	   linking prce.sl -> extra/jedpcre.sl fails, as this leads to a
	   file requiring itself.
	   

The core of the problem is that slsh 2.1.3-3 triggers a weaknes of Jed's
site.sl initialisation file leading to /usr/share/slsh/ missing in the
jed library path (Bug #476216)
There is still no consensus about "the right way" to fix this problem.

Alternative Workarounds
-----------------------

To get the plugins work again, do one of the following

* downgrade slsh to a version < 2.1.3-3

* create the directory /usr/share/slsh/local-packages/

* add the following code to ~/.jed/jed.rc or /etc/jed.d/05jed-common.sl

   $1 = "/usr/share/slsh/";
   !if (is_substr(get_jed_library_path(), $1))
      if (file_status($1);
          set_jed_library_path(strcat(get_jed_library_path(), ",", $1));

GM