Re: Clarification of eval-after-load [was: Problem mit symlinks, locate-library and load-history]

[Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>]

Hi, Stuart!

On Thu, 11 May 2006, Stuart D. Herring wrote:

>> (i) "FILE must match exactly" doesn't say what FILE must match, or how it
>> must match it, and it is unclear what "exactly" means.  Given this
>> description, I would not expect the argument "font-lock" to match the
>> file name "font-lock.elc", but it does.  :-(

>This may be a horribly naive question, but why doesn't this mechanism just
>use the `provide'd symbols?  Is there really much need to use
>`eval-after-load' with libraries that are considered so basic (i.e.,
>automatically loaded) that they don't provide anything?  I would think
>that things like `emacs-startup-hook' would be sufficient for that.

The use of symbols (as opposed to file names) here has only just been
introduced into Emacs (sometime in Emacs 22), so there are many millions
of (eval-after-load "foo" ....) forms in existing source throughout the
Emacs universe.  We need to stay compatible with that source.

>It just seems eminently clear to me what (eval-after-provide 'dired
>(unload-feature 'dired)) intends to do, and how to define it precisely.

IWHBB, probably, if it had been done this way back in 4004 B.C.  Maybe we
can phase out the (eval-after-load "foo" ....) variant by Emacs 24 or so.
Maybe, on the other hand, there are users who "need" the flexibility of
specifying an exact file name.

>Davis

-- 
Alan.