Re: Default emacs init file location confusion

["Elias Mårtenson" <lokedhs@gmail.com>]

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On Wed, 8 Jan 2020 at 01:21, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:

>
> We need to decide which directory to create if neither of the 2
> candidates exist.  Previously, we had only one candidate, and we'd
> create it without any regrets.  I don't think I see how the current
> situation is suddenly different.  Moreover, I don't think I understand
> how to do something smarter, without breaking gobs of code that
> depends on user-emacs-directory be existing.  Ideas welcome.
>

The problem I see (which is indeed the problem I ran into myself, someone
who has used Emacs since the 80's) is that users will be confused about
this because the behaviour is new, and from the user's point of view, Emacs
simply isn't reading the $HOME/.emacs.d directory.

This confusion is caused by an unfamiliarity with new functionality.
Therefore, we must conclude that this is a temporary problem. Once
documentation, youtube videos, block posts, stackoveflow examples, etc has
been updated, this will no longer be a problem. Just like the confusion
between $HOME/.emacs and $HOME/.emacs.d/init.el is no longer an issue.

But for now, it is an issue, so the solution should be to put this
information in from of the user's face. That means displaying a warning
(including a y/n prompt) when the directory is created.

Perhaps this warning is only needed for one release cycle, and then users
will be informed. But right now, it is my opinion that such warning is
needed.

Regards,
Elias

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