Subject: [bug#43627] [PATCH core-updates]: Add a 'append-separator?' field to the <search-path-specification> record.

From: Ludovic Courtès <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 2020 21:01:52 +0200

Hi,

Maxim Cournoyer <[email-masked]> skribis:

> These three commits extend our search-path-specification record with a
> new field, that can be used to produce a trailing separator, which can
> be useful at least with Emacs (I can think of at least another place
> where it could be used: the INFOPATH variable).
>
> It was motivated to allow defining the Emacs search path in a more
> robust way.

I’m skeptical since we have only one (or two?) use cases.  I think we
should weigh the added complexity, both in terms of implementation and
of semantic clarity, compared to reduced complexity elsewhere.  It seems
to me that the costs outweigh the benefits here.

Also, the empty search path entry has a special meaning.  For
EMACSLOADPATH, that entry doesn’t have to be last, one can choose to put
it in the middle of the search path (info "(emacs) General Variables").
The trailing separator is just a special case.

WDYT?

Thanks,
Ludo’.