Value of `dir-locals-file' [was: Add a separate mode for .dir-locals.el]

Value of `dir-locals-file' [was: Add a separate mode for .dir-locals.el]

[Drew Adams]

> Too late now, but perhaps .dir-locals.el should have not used the .el extension. Perhaps we should've reserved .el for lisp code (in the usual meaning of the term).

> .dir-locals.el is just a configuration file, even if it contains elisp data. .emacs.desktop is a save file containing real elisp code (I mean, function calls like setq and desktop-create-buffer, not just data lists) and it's not called .emacs-desktop.el, after all. As a consequence, I imagine, of nobody usually either editing or directly loading .emacs.desktop (though I've edited it a few times).

+1.

Same for your bookmarks file.  You can call it
anything, including `foo.el', but the default
name is `.emacs.bmk'.

Maybe someone who named the file `.dir-locals.el'
thought that eventually it might have Lisp code
in it?  Or perhaps this question just wasn't
considered?

Variable `dir-locals-file' is a constant - it's
intended as a variable.  Why is that?  Perhaps
its value should be changed from `.dir-locals.el'?
(Default value, if it becomes a variable variable.)

Re: Value of `dir-locals-file' [was: Add a separate mode for .dir-locals.el]

[Juanma Barranquero]

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On Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 4:53 PM Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> wrote:

> Variable `dir-locals-file' is a constant - it's
> intended as a variable.  Why is that?

There was some discussion at the time. Search for it in the emacs-devel
archives if you're interested.

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