Re: Installing on windows

[Cameron Horsburgh <cammo@netcall.com.au>]

On Thu, Feb 05, 2009 at 01:23:52PM +0530, Manish wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 11:41 AM, Cameron Horsburgh wrote:
> [...]
> >> >> M-x load-file RET <enter-path-to-.emacs> RET
> >> >
> >> > Will that unload variables that were previously loaded? I can see this
> >> > being an issue, for example, if you've undeclared a variable in .emacs
> >> > in order to return to a default value.
> >>
> >> Yes, this will reset any variables that you might have changed in the
> >> session back to the values still defined in .emacs.
> >
> > Sorry, I wasn't clear. I'm thinking about unsetting variables you have
> > in your .emacs to their default values. I just reboot Emacs, but if
> > there were a quicker way to revert to a 'pristine' state then load
> > .emacs it would be much easier.
> 
> I guess a lot depends on what "pristine" means here.
> 
> You could have multiple copies of .emacs to achieve various states, I
> think but then you will need to define /all/ the variables to their
> default values at least in some of those files explicitly so they can be
> reset from whatever you have set them to.  A variable not set in .emacs
> would stay at it's set value (whether set by another copy of .emacs or
> manually.)  In reality I have never needed to so I may not even fully
> understand your issue and if any of what I said made sense. :-/


I thought as much! What I (and I think the OP) is looking for is a way
to load a modified version of .emacs without having to reboot, but
with the guarantee that all of the changes will be effective. As you
say, variable declarations that have been removed from .emacs will not
be taken into account.

It's a moot point, I guess---by far the majority of my Emacs boot time
is spent loading things in .emacs anyway, so I doubt any time could be
saved if what I wanted were possible.


-- 

Cameron Horsburgh

Blog: http://spiritcry.wordpress.com/