Subject: Re: bug#8158: Definition of auto-mode-alist

From: Lennart Borgman <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2011 00:14:26 +0100

On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 11:35 PM, Reuben Thomas <[email-masked]> wrote:
> On 2 March 2011 22:30, Lennart Borgman <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>
>> I think the control of this must be given to the user and that
>> requires a central system.
>
> From the point of view of the user, the system is centralised:
> auto-mode-alist and friends, which can be redefined at will.
>
>> Just loading a new elisp file should not
>> override old choices. (See above for clarification.)
>
> Sure, but autoloaded lines from mode files aren't rerun when the mode
> is loaded, are they? (At least, it seems not, because modes I have
> autoloaded still only have one entry per file suffix in
> auto-mode-alist.)

So you mean that the insertion into auto-mode-alist should be done by
autoloading? I think that is too fragile since it will depend on how
modules are loading.

As I said in a previous message the user must be given some simple
control of this. In my opinion that means that some way to prioritize
must be used, please see my previous message. That would allow for
decentralized additions to auto-mode-alist (but you seem to have
missed that point?).