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Re: ~/.xemacs/ or ~/xemacs/? (Was: Re: [XEmacs] New Maintainer, soonish.)



karlheg@cathcart.sysc.pdx.edu (Karl M. Hegbloom) writes:

>  [ Bcc: xemacs-beta mailing list ]

Never BCC mailing-lists's. It is a good way of getting into spam
filters (yes, I know the spam filters should be better).

>  Let's move this thread over to `debian-emacsen' please.

I'll try. Can I post without subscribing?

>> - I changed the startups so that the init file is no longer
>     >>   called
>     >> "~/.emacs", it's in "~/.xemacs/init.el".  The options saved by
>     >> the Options menus won't go into "~/.emacs" either, they'll go
>     >> into "~/.xemacs/.options.el".  It will create the "~/.xemacs/"
>     >> directory

Like I wrote to you before. Please think again about it. This move is
planned for XEmacs 21.2. It is hard to do, especially if you are about 
providing a nice migration and backwards compatibility path. Basically 
I think you are not longer doing packaging, you are creating your own
home brew development tree. Not only are you creating problems for
yourself but also for us XEmacs maintainers. Therefore I request you
either (order of preference).
 
1. do it properly and use the Debian users as guinea pigs as well as
   submitting the patch for inclusion into the XEmacs sources. Note
   that you'll get flamed a lot when you only get close to "properly".
   I have ideas on how to do this if you want.
2. Keep the status quo. Users have been dealing with the different
   Emacsen version for years. They will survive doing it one more
   round.
3. If absolutely have to go your own way, please use other names than
   the ones "reserved" by the XEmacs team.

Note that properly is defined at least doing:
  - Falling back to reading "~/.emacs" when "~/.xemacs/init.el"
    doesn't exist. That way you preserve backwards compatibility.
  - Updating the documentation.
  - Providing an automatic migration route for the custom options.
    This involves things like changing the system supplied valued of
    custom-file to match where loaded the options from, offering to
    remove the customize stuff from ~/.emacs while moving to the new
    "~/.xemacs/options.el" etc.

Jan


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