Re: Question about `cond*'

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
> Cc: michelangelo.rodriguez@gmail.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org
> Date: Wed, 02 Oct 2024 23:35:20 -0400
> 
>   > I can only assume it was a mistake.  The question is should the feature
>   > be called `cond-star' or `cond*'.
> 
> I think `cond*' is a more natural name for the feature.
> That is what users will think of -- to do (require 'cont-star)
> would require a little extra bit of trivial knowledge.
> 
> I called the file `cond-star.el' to avoid the inconvenience that
> an asterisk in the file name could cause.  But it woukd be better
> if users did not have to know that file name.

If we provide 'cond*' as the feature, (require 'cond*) will not work
unless Lisp programs also specify the file name.  So this gets us the
need to know the file name back through a back-door anyway.

> `cond*' really ought to be preloaded.

I don't see a need to preload it at this time, for the same reason we
don't preload pcase and other macros: they are not necessarily needed
right at the beginning of a session, and not used in any preloaded
code.  I think we should first consider autoloading cond*, before we
talk about preloading it.