Subject: Re: bug#17530: 24.4.50; `package-load-list': incorrect defcustom type

From: Stefan Kangas <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2019 00:27:41 +0200

Drew Adams <[email-masked]> writes:

> Really?  How so?  Installing isn't loading.  Mightn't
> a user install some packages that s?he doesn't want to
> load?
>
> After all, isn't that the _point_ of this user option?

Yes, this defcustom exists to support the use case where a user wants
to specify which packages to load.

> > > Why would we assume that, by default, users should
> > > load the latest installed versions of all installed
> > > packages?
> >
> > Because that's what most users would expect, I think.
>
> I'm asking why you think that.

For starters, it's been the default for a long time.  But more
importantly, the overwhelmingly common use case is that a user only
installs a package that he/she wants to use.  That means that it has
to be loaded.

Of course, some users might install a package for other reasons.
Therefore it makes sense to allow them to specify exactly what
packages to load.

> You don't think that most users would expect that all
> libraries in their `load-path' should be loaded by
> default, do you?  (I don't.)  If you don't, then why
> do you think differently about installed packages?

Well, no, but I also don't think that this is a very good comparison.
In this case, you have to specify with a call to require that you want
to load it.  In the package.el case, you specify it by installing it.
Nothing is loaded blindly or unexpectedly.

Best regards,
Stefan Kangas