Re: Startup screen default directory

["Robert J. Chassell" <bob@rattlesnake.com>]

    Wouldn't it be enough to check for the autoloaded variable
    `desktop-save-mode'? When it is non-nil, we can assume that
    the user has customized it to load the desktop, so don't show
    the splash screen.

No.  My current value in this instance in which I am writing:

    desktop-save-mode is a variable defined in `desktop.el'.
    Its value is nil

In my major instance of GNU Emacs, I load over 20 files from a saved
desktop, but my `desktop-save-mode' variable is nil because I want
always to load the same files, but often look at others that I do not
necessarily want the next time I start Emacs.

On the other hand, in a root owned instance, in a `when' expression, I
evoke

  (desktop-save-mode 1)
  (desktop-read "/root")

The root owned instance says: 

    desktop-save-mode is a variable defined in `desktop.el'.
    Its value is t

That is an advantage of having nil, t and one .emacs file loaded with

   -q -l ~bob/.emacs

-- 
    Robert J. Chassell                          GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
    bob@rattlesnake.com                         bob@gnu.org
    http://www.rattlesnake.com                  http://www.teak.cc