Re: test for presence of library

[Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com>]

pjb@informatimago.com (Pascal J. Bourguignon) writes:

> Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
>
>> Sorry for my tardy response... I got distracted for a while.
>>
>> Thanks posters one and all... good suggestions and great helpful
>> info.  I have several solutions now.
>>
>> One case, the one that actually pertains here that didn't get
>> mentioned by TimX is where something being required is only useful in
>> certain environments.. 
>>
>> An example might be using emacs as root when doing system configs.
>>
>> There are really quite a few aspects of emacs I'll never use in that
>> situation. Yet its handy to have a portable emacs that loads the stuff
>> I need in some environments but skips it when working as root doing
>> system configs.
>>
>> Or maybe running emacs as user but while setting up a new os where I
>> won't expect many things to be available... 
>>
>> In those cases the idea that things may fail down the road from not
>> loading certain libs is not a problem since those things will not even
>> be attempted.  
>>
>> Now I know how to do it.
>
> Really, when you are in for a quick edit (vi-like) with emacs as root,
> just use:
>
>     emacs -nw -q 

Well, yeah for really quick vi-like... but mostly No, not what I was
after... Even there, my .emacs has settings I want in force, such as
custom fontlocking, etc..  and several `skeletons' I use quite a bit.
(Especially when editing configs) Probably quite a few more that would
not be there with -q but don't involve `requiring' extra pkgs.

Particularly one skeleton that wraps original lines with:

  # [HP 10/02/26_14:13:11 
  #  original stuff here
  Type my new stuff here
  # ]

So I can see exactly what was there and what is new for debug
purposes.

> or:
>
>     alias ed='emacs -nw -q'
>     ed
> ;-)

But then I'd miss the joy of doing complicated edits with ed... hehe.