RE: byte-compile making erroneous *Compile Log*

["Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> Now this does not happen when I start Emacs with "emacs -Q".  
> So I am trying without luck to figure out what in my
> initialization is causing...

> My initialization is a bit too large to try to narrow it down
> by partial execution...

No, it's not too large. What you need to do (unless someone here has a direct
answer for your problem) is to look for the problem using _binary_ search.

This a very quick way to locate the problem. Remember the story of the King's
agreement to give a bargainer one grain of rice for the first square of a
checkerboard, 2 grains for the second square, 4 grains for the third square, and
so on. Doubling or halving something picks up steam very quickly
(exponentially!).

By commenting out sections of your init file (use `M-x comment-region', which
you might want to bind to a key - I use `C-x C-:') and uncommenting them (just
use `C-u' with `comment-region'), split your init file up, in effect, to find
the problem. Split it in two. Then split the problematic half in two. Then split
the problematic quarter in two. Then the problematic eigth. And so on.

In no time at all, you will locate the specific part in your init file that
leads to your problem - no matter how big the file is. When you start doing
this, it might seem primitive, but it soon takes off. The key is to have a quick
way to comment out and uncomment a section of code. (Alternatively, you can use
`eval-region'.)