Re: package not needed to byte-compile

[Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen@web.de>]

Joe Riel <joer@san.rr.com> writes:

> Is there a way to tell Emacs that package B is required to run package
> A, but not to compile package A?  Using (require B) causes an error
> during byte-compilation because the package is not necessarily
> available then.

I guess something like this, for example:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(defun a-require-b ()
  (require 'b))

(a-require-b)
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

You can put a require call into any defun if you like (entry points to
code that makes use of B), that is not uncommon.  Of course A should not
make use of any macros defined in B.

If the whole B makes use of A's functions however, a toplevel require is
better.

If you avoid a toplevel require, you can use declare-function to get rid
of the compiler warnings about undefined functions.

Michael.