From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Chad Brown Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: user-controlled load-path extension: load-dir Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2011 12:25:48 -0800 Message-ID: <55772486-9439-4587-B8BD-2015AC9EE051@mit.edu> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1082) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1299615964 16526 80.91.229.12 (8 Mar 2011 20:26:04 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2011 20:26:04 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Emacs development discussions To: Dimitri Fontaine Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Mar 08 21:25:59 2011 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Px3Tj-00065D-2e for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:25:59 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:58216 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Px3Ti-0002Ju-A6 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 08 Mar 2011 15:25:58 -0500 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=52202 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Px3Td-0002Jp-Pe for Emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 08 Mar 2011 15:25:54 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Px3Tc-0000Pi-Mm for Emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 08 Mar 2011 15:25:53 -0500 Original-Received: from dmz-mailsec-scanner-8.mit.edu ([18.7.68.37]:58913) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Px3Tc-0000Pd-Kz for Emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 08 Mar 2011 15:25:52 -0500 X-AuditID: 12074425-b7c98ae000000a04-9d-4d7690d06c15 Original-Received: from mailhub-auth-1.mit.edu ( [18.9.21.35]) by dmz-mailsec-scanner-8.mit.edu (Symantec Brightmail Gateway) with SMTP id D7.E3.02564.0D0967D4; Tue, 8 Mar 2011 15:25:52 -0500 (EST) Original-Received: from outgoing.mit.edu (OUTGOING-AUTH.MIT.EDU [18.7.22.103]) by mailhub-auth-1.mit.edu (8.13.8/8.9.2) with ESMTP id p28KPpbQ017659; Tue, 8 Mar 2011 15:25:51 -0500 Original-Received: from [10.0.1.3] (c-67-183-32-38.hsd1.wa.comcast.net [67.183.32.38]) (authenticated bits=0) (User authenticated as yandros@ATHENA.MIT.EDU) by outgoing.mit.edu (8.13.6/8.12.4) with ESMTP id p28KPnR7007971 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=AES128-SHA bits=128 verify=NOT); Tue, 8 Mar 2011 15:25:50 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1082) X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAARePPVM= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 2) X-Received-From: 18.7.68.37 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:136916 Archived-At: On Mar 8, 2011, at 12:01 PM, Dimitri Fontaine wrote: > With this new facility, we could say to newbies to just save the > .el in ~/.emacs.d/load.d and do M-x load-user-files, or even M-x > load-new-user-files. Without the problems of a magic directory, we just just tell the user = something like: ``in emacs: M-x browse-packages RET, browse to , and click = `install'.'' or, for random `snippets' in things like github or emacswiki: ``in emacs: M-x install-by-url RET '' and have emacs download the package, unpack it, describe it to the user, = and offer to activate it (adding any necessary code to .emacs, probably = via a custom-style equivalent). This could also ask any required = questions up front. This seems easier (for the user) and more capable = (for the developer). Why the opposition? Emacs already contains = facilities that modify the user's startup files for them, and has for = decades. =46rom the point of view of emacs 24 and inexperienced users, I again = suggest that the Firefox extensions/themes mechanism is a much better = model to examine than magic directories. =20 I hope that helps. *Chad=