Re: Default emacs init file location confusion

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

>> That's why I originally suggested that if ~/.emacs.d/ exists we should
>> use it in preference to ~/.config/emacs/ rather than the reverse.
> The issue at hand is what happens when neither of these exists at
> startup time.

No, there are several questions along the way in the current scenario:

1- when neither exists yet, which one do we choose?
2- if the one we chose doesn't exist yet, when do we create it?
3- if two exist, which one do we choose?
4- should we pay attention to the fact that one of the two is empty?

> So your proposal would not have helped here.

Not in the first run of Emacs (the one that creates ~/.config/emacs),
but it would have helped in the second run (after ~/.emacs.d was
created).  It's only the second run which misbehaved (w.r.t what the
user expected), so it would not have been too late.

>> In any case, we should probably be more proactive about the problem: if
>> both exist we should emit a clear and visible warning.
> Again, that's not the situation we are discussing.

It is (for the second run).

>> > The way to prevent the above is described in NEWS, btw.
>> I think this effect is sufficiently major that we can't just say "you
>> should have read the NEWS".
> The idea was that very few will want that workaround.

I expect that it would/will bite any old timer who moves to a new
machine and happens to run `emacs` before installing his config
(e.g. because he needs to edit a config file in order to fetch his
Emacs config).


        Stefan