Re: Basic question about autoload function

[Kaushal Modi <kaushal.modi@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Dec 6, 2017 at 2:04 PM Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> wrote:

> > I have recently realized that (autoload #'foo-fn "bar-pkg")
> > works even if foo-fn is *not* defined inside bar-pkg.
>
> What do you mean by "works"?
>

By "works", I meant that bar-pkg got loaded when I called foo-fn. Sorry, I
myself hate the "works" and "does not work" phrases and I ended up using
those.

All that does is cause file bar-pkg.el[c] to be loaded
> whenever someone or something tries to invoke/use function,
> macro, or keymap `foo-fn'.  (But it does nothing if `foo-fn'
> is a function already defined.)
>
> Yes, nothing implies that `foo-fn' is defined in bar-pkg.el.
>

Thanks.

> The documentation also doesn't say that it has to be that way.
>
> What doesn't have to be what way?
>

I meant to say that the documentation does not imply that the FUNCTION has
to be defined inside FILE. I was wondering if that was intentional i.e.
FUNCTION can or cannot be defined inside FILE.

> So I was just pleasantly surprised that that did the right thing.
>
> The right thing being ___?  I guess you wanted Emacs to
> load that file when that function is invoked?
>

Yes, bar-pkg got loaded even when I called foo-fn (where foo-fn was defined
outside bar-pkg).. no errors, nothing.. it just worked as I thought.
-- 

Kaushal Modi