Re: change in Debian emacs policy: make global enabling of add-on lisp packages optional

[Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org>]

On Mon, Dec 02, 2002 at 12:10:53AM +0100, Davide G. M. Salvetti wrote:
> MB> It sounds like these might be better considered bugs against the
> MB> individual packages though, if they're doing unfriendly things
> MB> without being asked to.
> 
> No, you did not understand the issue.

>   1. AUC TeX is an enhanced TeX mode, associated to TeX files, with
>      peculiar keys, commands and menus.

I mentioned that packages adding to `auto-mode-alist' was one exception to
the general rule (but one which is easily controlled).  Does auctex do more
than that?  If so, what does it do?

The special case of auto-mode-alist is easier to control because it's a very
narrow and specific interface.  If a debian package adds an entry to that in
the site-start file, then it's easy for users to remove the entry (or
alternatively, add it, if it's _not_ added by default).

-Miles
-- 
P.S.  All information contained in the above letter is false,
      for reasons of military security.