From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Evans Winner Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: `custom-file' and init-file [was: user-controlled load-path extension: load-dir] Date: Wed, 09 Mar 2011 14:19:20 -0700 Message-ID: <87y64oouuf.fsf@gmail.com> References: <87ei6mz24h.fsf@lifelogs.com> <20110306072147.GA11067@event-horizon.homenet> <871v2i525h.fsf@lifelogs.com> <87oc5lx607.fsf@lifelogs.com> <874o7ds37p.fsf@lifelogs.com> <4D7726E8.5090206@swipnet.se> <4D772988.4070209@gmail.com> <4D775002.8050100@swipnet.se> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1299705482 25598 80.91.229.12 (9 Mar 2011 21:18:02 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 21:18:02 +0000 (UTC) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Mar 09 22:17:56 2011 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PxQlX-0000fh-I1 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:17:55 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:35369 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PxQlX-0004Qu-1a for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:17:55 -0500 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=36549 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PxQlQ-0004P4-QN for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:17:49 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PxQlP-0000sP-MX for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:17:48 -0500 Original-Received: from lo.gmane.org ([80.91.229.12]:46055) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PxQlP-0000sI-87 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:17:47 -0500 Original-Received: from list by lo.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PxQlO-0000aY-JQ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:17:46 +0100 Original-Received: from 67.42.142.120 ([67.42.142.120]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:17:46 +0100 Original-Received: from ego111 by 67.42.142.120 with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:17:46 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 43 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 67.42.142.120 User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.0.50 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:8QT0YP7FCya3bTOFb0u9adBlURk= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-Received-From: 80.91.229.12 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:137001 Archived-At: ,------ Drew Adams wrote ------ | By itself, that wouldn't clue users in. A separate | question would be whether to also have an (almost) | empty `.emacs' by default, containing just an explicit | load of `custom-file'. I'd say yes. Out of curiosity, would this complicate the process of Emacs installation? Is the idea that the first time a user runs Emacs, it checks to see if there is a .emacs in (getenv "HOME"), and if not, creates it? Would that complicate things for system administrators? Presumably they should use site-init.el, but I know some add some kind of simple .emacs file to the user account creation routine. By the way, for the default location of the custom file, I would suggest ~/.emacs.d. Right now my ~/.emacs.d is filled with things put there by elpa, predictive, org-mode, rcirc, my bookmarks file is there. I used to put my own one-off third-party libraries there, but I gave up and now put them in ~/emacs. I also put my own hacks in ~/.emacs-local and use the `load-dir' function I posted to load all that. Anyway, the convention seems to be that things auto-generated by Emacs and such things belong in ~/.emacs.d. | Users would be free to add their own Lisp | customizations before or after the load of | `custom-file'. I think this is important. I only use the customize interface, really, when I don't understand something well enough to handle it in my .emacs. Actually, there's not much left in my custom file now, because I tend to move things out of it to my own init routines as soon as I do understand something. I like to feel like I know what is going on, and like I can change things just by typing in a buffer, instead of fiddling with the customize interface. The result, and I can't be alone in this, is that I make the call to load the custom file at the beginning of my .emacs, so that if I happen to have defined something twice by mistake (or because I am too lazy to fix it) the result will be whatever I have defined in my .emacs.