windows: find init

windows: find init

[Rusi]

Some students of mine have shown willingness to work with emacs
However the problems of setup on windows are proving beyond me.

In particular, on windows, where is the emacs setup file/directory?

Yeah I know about
user-init-file
user-emacs-directory
locate-user-emacs-file

But I have failed so far to make them point to a reasonable place

So for now my suggestion is to just keep it whatever way (wherever) emacs
prefers it and add to it.

However it is rather painful and all my attempts to set up env variables to
make emacs directory match %user-profile% have been fruitless so far.

Is there any better known way?

[
Yeah I admit that if someone asked me to change the path ~/.emacs.d to something
else on *nix I would not know any more how to do it (from outside emacs) than
I do for windows.  However on *nix its unnecessary. On windows its uhh.. a bit
inconvenient
]

Re: windows: find init

[Vaidheeswaran C]

On Saturday 13 June 2015 08:49 AM, Rusi wrote:
> Some students of mine have shown willingness to work with emacs
> However the problems of setup on windows are proving beyond me.
> 
> In particular, on windows, where is the emacs setup file/directory?

http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/efaq-w32.html#Location-of-init-file

Re: windows: find init

[Rusi]

On Saturday, June 13, 2015 at 9:05:21 AM UTC+5:30, Vaidheeswaran C wrote:
> On Saturday 13 June 2015 08:49 AM, Rusi wrote:
> > Some students of mine have shown willingness to work with emacs
> > However the problems of setup on windows are proving beyond me.
> > 
> > In particular, on windows, where is the emacs setup file/directory?
> 
> http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/efaq-w32.html#Location-of-init-file

[Not on windows now so from memory]
Yeah I know that page
And I tried those env-variable setting options [for a couple of hours] before
giving up

In fact the first thing I do when setting emacs on a windows box is to
try to make the (where I expect) init file have a elisp error
such as an open '(' without a close ')'
When emacs protests about the error, I know we agree on the location of the 
file and can proceed 
Until then keep adjusting env variables till we agree

On XP this approach used to work.
Win-7 dont know
Win-8 it doesn't

Re: windows: find init

[John Mastro]

> In particular, on windows, where is the emacs setup file/directory?

I set HOME to e.g. c:\home\me, and then it's c:\home\me\.emacs.d\init.el. 

-- 
john

Re: windows: find init

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Vaidheeswaran C <vaidheeswaran.chinnaraju@gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2015 09:02:40 +0530
> 
> On Saturday 13 June 2015 08:49 AM, Rusi wrote:
> > Some students of mine have shown willingness to work with emacs
> > However the problems of setup on windows are proving beyond me.
> > 
> > In particular, on windows, where is the emacs setup file/directory?
> 
> http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/efaq-w32.html#Location-of-init-file

I wish people have stopped citing that obsolete FAQ.  All the
information was moved into the Emacs User manual long ago.  In this
case, see

  http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Windows-HOME.html#Windows-HOME

Re: windows: find init

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2015 20:42:25 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com>
> Injection-Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2015 03:42:26 +0000
> 
> On Saturday, June 13, 2015 at 9:05:21 AM UTC+5:30, Vaidheeswaran C wrote:
> > On Saturday 13 June 2015 08:49 AM, Rusi wrote:
> > > Some students of mine have shown willingness to work with emacs
> > > However the problems of setup on windows are proving beyond me.
> > > 
> > > In particular, on windows, where is the emacs setup file/directory?
> > 
> > http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/efaq-w32.html#Location-of-init-file
> 
> [Not on windows now so from memory]
> Yeah I know that page
> And I tried those env-variable setting options [for a couple of hours] before
> giving up

I'm guessing you have added/changed the environment variables or
Registry values without logoff/logon afterwards, and expected that to
work.  It won't.

To try which of the variables and values work for you, do this:

  . set/change the variable from the Windows shell prompt, as in
    "set HOME=c:\wherever\you\want"

  . run Emacs from the same shell prompt

Once you've decided which variable you want to set and to what value,
make it permanent by right-clicking "My Computer" (or "Computer" on
post-XP versions), selecting Properties->Advanced, find "Environment
Variables" there, and change them as you decided.  Then logoff and
logon again, or restart the system.  Now the new value of the
environment variable will be in effect no matter how you invoke Emacs:
you can do that from a shell prompt, from a desktop shortcut, or from
the Start->Run dialog, whatever.

That said, there's nothing wrong with using the default without
setting HOME in the environment.  The default puts .emacs in a decent
place, and users can always reach it with "C-x C-f ~/.emacs RET"
without knowing where it is on their system.

Re: windows: find init

[Vaidheeswaran C]

On Saturday 13 June 2015 01:37 PM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> From: Vaidheeswaran C <vaidheeswaran.chinnaraju@gmail.com>
>> Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2015 09:02:40 +0530
>>
>> On Saturday 13 June 2015 08:49 AM, Rusi wrote:
>>> Some students of mine have shown willingness to work with emacs
>>> However the problems of setup on windows are proving beyond me.
>>>
>>> In particular, on windows, where is the emacs setup file/directory?
>>
>> http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/efaq-w32.html#Location-of-init-file
> 
> I wish people have stopped citing that obsolete FAQ.  All the
> information was moved into the Emacs User manual long ago.  In this
> case, see
> 
>   http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Windows-HOME.html#Windows-HOME
> 
> 

I blame nt/README.  (Because) I picked up the link from that file.

Re: windows: find init

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2015 13:47:01 +0530
> From: Vaidheeswaran C <vaidheeswaran.chinnaraju@gmail.com>
> 
> > I wish people have stopped citing that obsolete FAQ.  All the
> > information was moved into the Emacs User manual long ago.  In this
> > case, see
> > 
> >   http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Windows-HOME.html#Windows-HOME
> > 
> > 
> 
> I blame nt/README.  (Because) I picked up the link from that file.

As of commit 6f9d213 to the Emacs repository, you have no one else to
blame.

Re: windows: find init

[Vaidheeswaran C]

On Saturday 13 June 2015 02:13 PM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2015 13:47:01 +0530
>> > From: Vaidheeswaran C <vaidheeswaran.chinnaraju@gmail.com>
>> > 
>>> > > I wish people have stopped citing that obsolete FAQ.  All the
>>> > > information was moved into the Emacs User manual long ago.  In this
>>> > > case, see
>>> > > 
>>> > >   http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Windows-HOME.html#Windows-HOME
>>> > > 
>>> > > 
>> > 
>> > I blame nt/README.  (Because) I picked up the link from that file.
> As of commit 6f9d213 to the Emacs repository, you have no one else to
> blame.
> 
> 

I blame nt/README __yet again__.
           ^^^^^^

Re: windows: find init

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Vaidheeswaran C <vaidheeswaran.chinnaraju@gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2015 14:40:24 +0530
> 
> > As of commit 6f9d213 to the Emacs repository, you have no one else to
> > blame.
> > 
> > 
> 
> I blame nt/README __yet again__.

That file is not distributed with Emacs binaries.  But I changed it
nonetheless.  Happy now?

Re: windows: find init

[Vaidheeswaran C]

On Saturday 13 June 2015 03:05 PM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> From: Vaidheeswaran C <vaidheeswaran.chinnaraju@gmail.com>
>> > Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2015 14:40:24 +0530
>> > 
>>> > > As of commit 6f9d213 to the Emacs repository, you have no one else to
>>> > > blame.
>>> > > 
>>> > > 
>> > 
>> > I blame nt/README __yet again__.
> That file is not distributed with Emacs binaries.  But I changed it
> nonetheless.  Happy now?

Yes. Gollum is happy.

Re: windows: find init

[Rusi]

On Saturday, June 13, 2015 at 1:46:04 PM UTC+5:30, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2015 20:42:25 -0700 (PDT)
> > From: Rusi 
> > Injection-Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2015 03:42:26 +0000
> > 
> > On Saturday, June 13, 2015 at 9:05:21 AM UTC+5:30, Vaidheeswaran C wrote:
> > > On Saturday 13 June 2015 08:49 AM, Rusi wrote:
> > > > Some students of mine have shown willingness to work with emacs
> > > > However the problems of setup on windows are proving beyond me.
> > > > 
> > > > In particular, on windows, where is the emacs setup file/directory?
> > > 
> > > http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/efaq-w32.html#Location-of-init-file
> > 
> > [Not on windows now so from memory]
> > Yeah I know that page
> > And I tried those env-variable setting options [for a couple of hours] before
> > giving up
> 
> I'm guessing you have added/changed the environment variables or
> Registry values without logoff/logon afterwards, and expected that to
> work.  It won't.

Heh You are right Eli!
Its working and I didn't know it
I turn on windows once every 6 months and towards maintaining my BP
I dont turn it on again for another 6
In the session which I tried it didn't work... Didnt try again

And in all fairness *nix is just the same: Changing .profile does not work
immediately

Not directly germane to emacs but it would sure help if this fact were mentioned
in the docs.

Re: windows: find init

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2015 04:56:55 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com>
> 
> And in all fairness *nix is just the same: Changing .profile does not work
> immediately
> 
> Not directly germane to emacs but it would sure help if this fact were mentioned
> in the docs.

As long as the subtle issues with changing .profile are not in the
docs, I see no reason to have the equivalent factoids for Windows
there.

I mean, how much of the underlying OS features do we need to describe
in the Emacs documentation?