David> Cygwin: [C:/CYGWIN]/usr/local/lib/xemacs-21.5-b1/i686-pc-cygwin/xemacs.exe David> Windoz: C:/CYGWIN/usr/local/lib/xemacs-21.4.3/i586-pc-win32/xemacs.exe David> AND David> [C:/CYGWIN]/usr/local/lib/xemacs-packages/... David> ENV "EMACSPACKAGEPATH" is set appropriately. I have no idea what you mean by "appropriately", please be explicit. In theory, assuming $prefix is [C:/CYGWIN]/usr/local/ which is consistent with the arch directories above, if you put the packages in [C:/CYGWIN]/usr/local/lib/xemacs/xemacs-packages/ "appropriately" means unset. David> Why? Would somewone please clue me in to how the David> initialization code deduces the package-load-path; either David> describe it or point me toward the info pages or even the David> lisp source. Try info "xemacs" "startup paths". In the core lisp directory are a bunch of *paths*.el files, as well as startup.el. The basic idea is to find "installation roots". These are (1) emacs.exe\..\.. and (2) $prefix. For each root (there is a canonical order which I forget) XEmacs looks for version-specific Lisp libraries in $root/xemacs-$version/lisp. It looks for packages in emacs.exe\..\..\xemacs-package (as a special exception, deprecated and maybe even removed as of 21.4.0, I forget), and for each root in $root/lib/xemacs/xemacs-packages. There is somewhat more detail in Info; the source is the only way to get the exact algorithm, though. It is possible to change these algorithms by messing with directory configuration options other than --prefix and --exec-prefix. That is not recommended. -- Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp University of Tsukuba Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN Don't ask how you can "do" free software business; ask what your business can "do for" free software.