21.3: emacs -q -l cause-error.el file.txt does not load file

21.3: emacs -q -l cause-error.el file.txt does not load file

[Jari Aalto+mail.linux]

In GNU Emacs 21.3.1 (i386-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
 of 2004-08-03 on raven, modified by Debian

Test case:

    $ cd ~/tmp
    $ echo error > cause-error.el
    $ echo edit  > file.txt
    $ emacs --no-site-file -nw -q -l cause-error.el file.txt
    Symbol's value as variable is void: error

Emacs terminates after option "-l" and the file.txt is not loaded
for editing.

I think Emacs should process all non-option command line arguments and
display files for editing in spite of "-l" load errors in lisp packages.
Being able to edit files is the key feature.

Jari

Re: 21.3: emacs -q -l cause-error.el file.txt does not load file

[Kevin Rodgers]

Jari Aalto+mail.linux wrote:
 > Test case:
 >
 >     $ cd ~/tmp
 >     $ echo error > cause-error.el
 >     $ echo edit  > file.txt
 >     $ emacs --no-site-file -nw -q -l cause-error.el file.txt
 >     Symbol's value as variable is void: error
 >
 > Emacs terminates after option "-l" and the file.txt is not loaded
 > for editing.
 >
 > I think Emacs should process all non-option command line arguments and
 > display files for editing in spite of "-l" load errors in lisp packages.

I disagree.  Emacs is not like most Unix applications, in that it
doesn't really make a distinction between options and arguments and
processes them in order left-to-right.  In fact, the above command
line is exactly equivalent to:

emacs --no-site-file -nw -q -l cause-error.el --visit=file.txt

In particular, what if after visiting a file the user specifies that a
function defined in the library should be called?

emacs ... file.txt --funcall=foo --eval='(write-file "/important_file")'

 > Being able to edit files is the key feature.

Predictability is a key feature as well.

-- 
Kevin Rodgers