Re: `~/.xemacs/{init,.options}.el' (Was: Re: [XEmacs] New Maintainer, soonish.)
karlheg@cathcart.sysc.pdx.edu (Karl M. Hegbloom) writes:
> I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill.
I have one question: is this going to be transparent to *all* existing
users? If the answer is yes, then this might be acceptable.
Otherwise, I have to agree with the naysayers that it's a terrible
idea. (And I'm not sure you *can* make it *totally* transparent, for
reasons I'll elucidate on request.)
Most newbies don't write elisp. Most newbies, in fact, don't actually
experiment much. Those that do are used to things breaking for odd
reasons, and they usually have friends to help them. These friends
will join the chorus of experienced users, saying, "this system is
broken, switch to Red Hat", when they *finally* figure out just what
is going on.
This change will also annoy the hell out of anyone (even a newbie) who
uses multiple flavors of Unix -- maybe Debian at home and Solaris at
work. It's especially going to annoy those who currently mirror or
share their home directory between different systems, some Debian.
No, it's not the world's most important issue. It is, however, a
thoroughly *bad* idea, from start to finish! You're annoying and
frustrating the experienced people, and not benefitting any but a tiny
percentage of newbies.
--
Chris Waters xtifr@dsp.net | I have a truly elegant proof of the
or xtifr@debian.org | above, but it is too long to fit into
http://www.dsp.net/xtifr | this .signature file.
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