RE: multiple Emacs versions on w32

["Phillip Lord" <Phillip.Lord@newcastle.ac.uk>]

Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 16:14:00 -0000
>> From: "Phillip Lord" <Phillip.Lord@newcastle.ac.uk>
>> Cc:
>> 
>> launch emacs with "-q -l ~/.emacs.22" (or what ever file
>> you want to use).
> 
> That won't produce the same effect as a .emacs file, since the init
> file is loaded at a different stage of the startup process than files
> loaded through -l.  The OP could have subtle problems if he used this
> suggestion.

True enough, but the problems are likely to more subtle than the 
crashes they reported. 

Of course, emacs shouldn't be core dumping, and solving this problem
seems the best course to me. 

Having said that, I've used this technique for years -- I normally
use two emacs, one for email and one for everything else (checking email
from the server can take a while, and emacs is single threaded). 


 
>> Or alternatively you could use the emacs-version variable, and
>> have your .emacs work appropriately. You'd need check that your
>> `custom-file' is being set appropriately.
> 
> But this won't solve the original problem, as I understand it: that
> Emacs updates .emacs when you save certain settings.  Setting
> `custom-file' is not going to resolve this 100%, as some packages
> write to .emacs.


I agree. The disabled commands option writes to .emacs. 

If I may be so bold, I think that this is a problem with emacs. 
Really, all packages which write to somewhere should be configurable
through a single variable. 

Cheers

Phil