Re: locate-file in Emacs

[Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@arsdigita.com>]

"Stefan Monnier" <monnier+gnu/emacs@rum.cs.yale.edu> writes:

> Search for FILENAME through PATH.
> If SUFFIXES is non-nil, it should be a list of suffixes to append to
> file name when searching.  If SUFFIXES is nil, it is equivalent to '("").
> If non-nil, PREDICATE is used instead of `file-readable-p'.
> PREDICATE can also be an integer to pass to the access(2) function,
> in which case file-name-handlers are ignored.
> For compatibility with XEmacs, PREDICATE can also be a symbol among
> `executable', `readable', `writable', or `exists' or a list of one
> of those symbols.

Why have you reverted to the old integer-based interface for
PREDICATE?  These days even "access(2)" uses preprocessor constants
for its second argument.  The user really shouldn't learn obscure
integer combinations when more readable symbols are available.

Besides, both the numbers and the symbols are compatible with XEmacs.
XEmacs supports (but does not document) the numbers and will do so in
the foreseeable future.  In fact, it will do so forever if it has to
be done for compatibility with your code, which reintroduces them.