What's our latest standing on custom-file user-init-file and to load
first?
I faintly remember potentially nasty problems in the area.
(I'm runnnig at reduced functionality due to an iritis.)
Adrian
We're considering simplification of the process of configuring the
location(s) for packages at ./configure time. Please direct comments
and use cases to XEmacs Design <xemacs-design(a)xemacs.org>, and CC Ben
Wing <ben(a)xemacs.org> (Reply-To is set).
We're interested in use cases for specifying package location. Given
that currently XEmacs usually attempts to autodetect packages based on
the location of the `xemacs' binary and the installation prefix, we
hope that it would be unnecessary.
The context is that Ben Wing has proposed a patch which provides
--package-prefix as a simple interface to --package-path. That is,
--package-prefix=$dir is equivalent to specifying
--package-path=$early::$dir/site-packages:$dir/xemacs-packages:$dir/mule-packages
with the exact specification of $early under discussion (Ben specified
$early as ~/.xemacs, but that is probably incorrect.)
Here are some considerations that have been advanced in discussion so
far.
o Are multiple prefixes allowed?
o If not, does that mean we are deprecating multiple hierarchies?
o If not, we still need --package-path, don't we?
o Is it a good idea to enforce ~/.xemacs as the early-packages
prefix?
o If --package-prefix forces ~/.xemacs as the early-packages
prefix, we still need --package-path, don't we?
o How should --package-prefix interact with EMACSPACKAGEPATH?
o Should there be an EMACSPACKAGEPREFIX environment variable?
o What do --package-path and --package-prefix imply about where
package-admin should install packages?
o How should --package-prefix and --package-path interact with
--with-prefix=no?
o Does handling --package-prefix in the general case require changes
to the package-path-finding code?
We also should consider whether simplification of package location
specification interacts with longer term plans for the packages:
o Getting rid of the special treatment of mule-packages.
o Inverting the package hierarchy (ie, true run-in-place package
sources).
--
Graduate School of Systems and Information Engineering University of Tsukuba
http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/ Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
Economics of Information Communication and Computation Systems
Experimental Economics, Microeconomic Theory, Game Theory