Subject: Re: bug#8220: 24.0.50; (On Windows XP) "c:\_emacs" isn't found during startup

From: Juanma Barranquero <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 20:27:57 +0100

On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 18:59, Drew Adams <[email-masked]> wrote:

> It behaves similarly as a _file_ - that's what I meant.

Yes, I know. I said as much in the next paragraph.

> Most platforms do not
> treat `_emacs' specially because of its _file name_.  Many platforms do treat
> `.emacs' specially because of its _file name_.

That's true, but that does not concern Emacs. For users of POSIX
systems, that treatment is expected and welcome; for Windows it is not
treated specially (other than the difficulty of creating it on older
Windows), and users do expect that too. It's specialness is not a
problem for anyone.

> Why?  Because
> it's a good, simple name that is not treated specially by different platforms.

I don't see why is that a plus. On a POSIX system, I would expect my
Emacs configuration file to be hidden, as I would expect it from the
configuration files of most other applications. Having _emacs around
on Ubuntu, for example, would be ugly IMHO; I very much doubt I would
chose to use _emacs in preference to .emacs.

> Shouldn't be complex.

Meaning what? I'm not talking about complexity from a OS point of
view, but Emacs'. And this very bug report thread is a witness to the
fact that it is, in fact, complex.

> The gain is simplicity: `_emacs' is simpler than `.emacs' because it is not a
> name that is handled specially on various platforms.

You're conflating two things, and I disagree on both. First, that it
is simpler. Apparently you think it is simpler for POSIX users to
adapt to Windows ways (at least, with respect to application's
configuration files) and I don't agree. Second, what I'm talking
about, when I say "more complex", is explaining to the user how it
works. If we were to *remove* .emacs and init.el and keep just _emacs
(let's forget X vs X.el vs. X.elc issues here) it would be simpler;
but as that is not possible, your proposed change adds complexity for
POSIX users. Removing _emacs brings less complexity for Windows users,
without adding it for anyone else.

> Anyway, as Eli has said, this is all moot - it has already been decided.

Thanks god :-)

    Juanma