Subject: bug#2577: startup.el should choose .emacs ahead of .emacs.elc if .emacs is newer

From: Glenn Morris <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2013 22:35:45 -0500

Emacs 24.4 will have a `load-prefer-newer' option.
Since the default is nil, it does not help with loading the init file,
if the init file is where you set it non-nil...

Personally I think it would be fine to eg simply bind it non-nil around
loading of the init file, but people seem to feel quite strongly about
this issue, and I'm not going to argue it.