From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Don't concat directories to file names Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2007 14:16:18 +0900 Message-ID: <87abv0cwd9.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> References: <87wsy6cvip.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> <87k5u5cydi.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> <874pl9tbnj.fsf@catnip.gol.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1181970365 13026 80.91.229.12 (16 Jun 2007 05:06:05 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2007 05:06:05 +0000 (UTC) Cc: lekktu@gmail.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org, monnier@iro.umontreal.ca, Miles Bader To: rms@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Jun 16 07:06:03 2007 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 4.50) id 1HzQU3-0003iv-Si for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 16 Jun 2007 07:06:00 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1HzQU3-0006bJ-6F for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 16 Jun 2007 01:05:59 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1HzQTx-0006aR-OO for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 16 Jun 2007 01:05:53 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1HzQTw-0006a0-0e for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 16 Jun 2007 01:05:53 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1HzQTv-0006Zx-O8 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 16 Jun 2007 01:05:51 -0400 Original-Received: from mtps02.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp ([130.158.97.224]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1HzQTt-0004C9-A2; Sat, 16 Jun 2007 01:05:49 -0400 Original-Received: from uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp [130.158.99.156]) by mtps02.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id 978D47FFC; Sat, 16 Jun 2007 14:05:47 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: by uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix, from userid 1000) id CA3581A260D; Sat, 16 Jun 2007 14:16:18 +0900 (JST) In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: VM 7.17 under 21.5 (beta27) "fiddleheads" (+CVS-20070324) XEmacs Lucid X-detected-kernel: Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) 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:73046 Archived-At: Richard Stallman writes: > >> Then the recently introduced `user-emacs-directory' should be renamed > >> to `user-init-directory', > > > > Indeed. Please: could someone do that? > > Er, well, "init" seems ... wrong. It's used for more than "init files". > > I agree. "config" is also wrong; this is not just used for > configurations. The question is not how the directory is used; it is how the variable is used. To XEmacs-the-program, and its subsystems, the operational meaning is "when you [re]*init*[ialize] the environment, the *user*'s configuration files may be found in this *directory*." This includes the auto-autoloads for packages when the user cannot or prefers to not install in the system load-path, for whatever reason. True, if the auto-autoloads are there, then the rest of the package (and infrastructure) are there too. Many XEmacs users do things like keep sources to private libraries and personal data files there, of course. But XEmacs and its subsystems know nothing about that! They find packaged code through `load-path', not `user-init-directory', and they find data through `data-directory-list'. So it seems *preferable* that the variable name not indicate such usage. Rather, subsystems should use it to initialize standard paths so that `load' and `locate-data-file' Just Work, rather than have subsystems explicitly referencing `user-emacs-directory'. If Emacs's use is going to be substantially different, please pick an appropriate name for that. But as I understand it, the primary usage of this *variable* is going to be finding user configuration when initializing Emacs and its subsystems, as it described above for XEmacs.