Re: Feature Request : autoload-form

[Mike Mattie <codermattie@gmail.com>]

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On Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:24:45 -0400
Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> wrote:

>       - I got rid of the monolithic .emacs, so that bits of
> configuration go into dedicated "modules". There is a module for
> C-mode, one for Muse-mode etc. One module resides in one file.
> Modules are shared in your network of friends/colleagues ... anybody
> syncing with you, so they are "network-specific" but not
> "user-specific".
> 
> I think I understand what these do.  I'm not completely sure why you
> want them, though.  What job do these do, which you couldn't do by
> installing some Lisp libraries in the usual way?

There isn't a usual way for installing elisp libraries, just whatever
the user has slapped together out of necessity. The closest way to
any usual way AFAICT is ELPA.

The Emacs developers use trees of elisp source managed by CVS regularly, 
it is somewhat curious that a single .emacs file is considered adequate
the user.

In fact I think a single .emacs file discourages sharing emacs elisp
because it contradicts directly the kind of modularity and organization
essential to sharing.

If I had not broken out of a single .emacs file long ago I never would
have posted any elisp, because it was always a big hair-ball in a giant
file.

Something to consider at least. The rest of this line of thought is
to off-topic for me to continue, but I will share ideas and code off-list.

>       - To allow fine-tuning, a user can use "module configuration
> file", which is an other file, with personal tweaking in it. Those
> conf files are not shared and are usually optional. They are user
> specific, and private. Exemple : the ERC module does a lot of
> configuration, but it can not set up username, password etc because
> this information is user-specific.
> 
> Why not put this stuff directly in .emacs?
> 
>     I could put, at beginning of *every* modules, a (load-file
>     "thisModuleConfigurationFile" t).
> 
> I don't see why you want to do that, rather than putting the
> "module configuration" expressions directly in .emacs.
> What do you gain?
> 
>      This is what I did before, but I do
>     not find that elegant, nor fully satisfactory in many ways for the
>     needs, so it now is to the TidyConfig system to carry proper
> loading of modules.
> 
> I am confused.  Are you talking about making a module load its module
> configuration expressions, or are you talking about how to load the
> module itself when it is needed?  Those are two different issues,
> right? Some of your words seem to imply one, and some seem to imply
> the other.
> 
>     Here we are. I currently have no option to do so, except putting
> the form I want to eval in a dummy file and registering this file with
>     autoload.
> 
> I have lost you completely here.
> 
> 

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