Re: Emacs Installer for MS Windows

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Steven Tamm <steventamm@mac.com> writes:

> My point was not to have an adjective, nor as a comparison to XEmacs.
> There is only one Emacs.  However, it seems to be a style among many
> applications to group by manufacturer.  Either with:
> "C:\program files\Microsoft Office"
> "C:\program files\Microsoft Visual Studio"
> "C:\program files\apache group\apache"
> "C:\program files\Mozilla Firefox"

That's not a grouping by manufacturer (apart from "apache group").
The problem is that those are the proper names: you could not hope to
trademark a generic term like "Office" or "Word" (well, Microsoft is
still keeping up its "Windows" trademark with a somewhat expensive
bully&settle strategy, but that's a bit of an exception).

I'd not expect many people starting to use "Emacs" as a generic term,
however.

> Some people on the list may express a preference to do the same thing
> either with:
> "C:\program files\GNU Emacs" or
> "C:\program files\GNU\Emacs" or
> "C:\program files\Emacs".

That leaves no sensible name for XEmacs.  The difference between the
two is not GNU and non-GNU, and "GNU XEmacs" would be seriously
misleading to other people.

> Others may think it's a bad idea.

I do.

> The point was not to distinguish flavours of Emacs; there is only
> one Visual Studio and only one Firefox.

It is their choice how to call their directories.

> It's a stylistic decision that should be made explicitly, as opposed
> to being stumbled upon.

Well, I would not call quoting the Emacs FAQ on this exactly stumbling.

> It seems based on the feedback (or is that smackdown) that
> %PROGRAM_FILES%\Emacs is the location that causes the least
> discomfort.
> 
> Right?

Right.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum