Re: (no subject)

[Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org>]

On Tue, Aug 12, 2003 at 06:11:23AM -0700, shuki_duv@yahoo.com wrote:
> Of what use is it to users (as opposed to the developers)?

Even if one were to accept that the distinction were relevant, how, pray
tell, does emacs know which you are?  The very fact that you're compiling .el
file multiple times suggests that you, in fact, are actually more like a
`developer.'

In any case, I think the point is that emacs simply doesn't know what you
want, and can't, unless you tell it.  Perhaps something like a
`byte-compile-overwrite-output-file' could be added to do what you want.

> On the other hand, for example, I am maintaining an emacs configuration
> which is in widespread use (via -u). My umask is 077, and whenever I
> recompile a file, I need to change its .elc counterpart permissions back.

Writing a new file (as opposed to overwriting the old one) is very common
in unix tools (especially in emacs).  If you have set up your environment so
that this doesn't do what you want, you have to deal with the result yourself
(it's not like it's hard).

> Also, what if target-file is a symlink? In my opinion, this feature only
> confuses matters.

Relying on writing files through a symlink is similarly something you can't
rely on; you simply shouldn't do that in general.

-Miles
-- 
We live, as we dream -- alone....