david.bush(a)adn.alcatel.com (David Bush) writes: *I* *agree* *100* *%*. However, Stallman fucked us all by choosing `.emacs' for `custom-file' (I believe Per's original idea was otherwise), and we were stupid enough to follow. I regretted that decision 1000 times over, but fixing it takes more than lamenting about it. To reiterate, fixing `custom-file' would require: 1) Defaulting `custom-file' to something other than `.emacs'; 2) Making sure that it is loaded after `.emacs' without the user needing to load it from `.emacs'; 3) Doing something about the old users' options in their `.emacs' files -- for instance, by moving them to the new file, or by ignoring multiple entries.[1] 4) If `.xemacs/' is present, use it, otherwise choose a default in home directory. Up to b41, XEmacs did #1 and maybe #2. #3 and #4 are crucial. Footnotes: [1] The argument against moving is that (a) it means again meddling with the user's .emacs, and (b) it will screw those who use FSFmacs in parallel. The argument pro moving is "we screwed it up, we should fix it". -- Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic(a)srce.hr&gt; | Student at FER Zagreb, Croatia --------------------------------+-------------------------------- "I came here to chew bubble gum and to kick ass... and I'm all out of ass." -- Crow, MST3K #519 ("Outlaw")