Re: bug in save-some-buffers or diff.el?

[Juri Linkov <juri@jurta.org>]

"Eli Zaretskii" <eliz@elta.co.il> writes:
> > From: Kevin Rodgers <ihs_4664@yahoo.com>
> > Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 10:34:15 -0600
> > 
> > > Instead, `load' should load the newest of .el
> > > or .elc files, and report the same warning as a simple reminder to
> > > recompile updated .el files to execute them faster.
> > 
> > That may be true for developers running CVS Emacs.  But for normal
> > users, it is the historic and expected behavior.  For instance, it
> > allows me to develop and test my own .el files while still having a
> > working .elc file for both myself and others to use.
> 
> Indeed.
> 
> I fully agree with Kevin: the current behavior of `load' should not be
> changed.
> 
> I do work on developing CVS Emacs, but still I find the current
> behavior much more useful than the suggested one.  For example, it
> allows me to do a "cvs up" on selected files without worrying about
> possible inconsistencies that might introduce (because some changes in
> *.el files require related changes in other files in order for them to
> work correctly).

Seems, it's just matter of habit.  I find the less error-prone and
more reliable the standard "UNIX-like" development style, where files
under development are placed into another directory, whose name is
listed in the front of `load-path'.  But currently `load-path' implies
additional hidden layer for searching files that prefers .elc files
over .el ones in every directory.

Maybe, a new option could be added to choose between these two cases.

Anyhow, I'm just trying to find the solution to the real problem about
warnings that go unnoticed because they become overwritten by the
new messages in the minibuffer.  And user remains unaware that he is
using old files until he is hit strongly by the resulting problems,
because usually .el files newer than .elc files mean that user forgot
to recompile them.  One solution to this problem is to display such
critical warnings in the separate window instead of minibuffer.

-- 
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/