Re: Package initialization

[Helmut Eller <eller.helmut@gmail.com>]

On Sun, Jul 19 2015, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

> 1.  The package has an idempotent initialization function, typically
>     implemented by wrapping the whole function in `(if (not
>     <package>-initialized-p) ...)'.
> 2.  The autoloads include exactly those commands that users are
>     expected to invoke in the uninitialized state.  (Users who know
>     what they are doing can of course explicitly require or load
>     package files and call any function.)
> 3.  All autoloaded commands should call the package initialization
>     function as their first action.
> 4.  The autoloads may defvar global variables in the package's
>     namespace.  However defcustoms (which are automatically
>     initialized by the XEmacs package system) are preferred for
>     variables the user might customize, even if that is unusual.
[]
>  > I quite like to see the explicit call to slime-setup in my .emacs, but
>  > others might not.
>
> I think the rules 1-4 above would satisfy both you and those others.

I don't see how.  Either (require 'slime-autoloads) calls slime-setup or
not.  Calling it lazily when a SLIME related command is invoked the
first time would kinda work for SLIME, but it would be rather strange
that say the slime-connect command implicitly adds hooks to
lisp-mode-hook.  In general, lazy initialization would also not work
well if those autoloaded commands should be bound to keys because before
the first invocation the keys would not be bound.

Helmut