Re: `~/.xemacs/{init,.options}.el' (Was: Re: [XEmacs] New Maintainer, soonish.)

[David Starner <dstarner98@aasaa.ofe.org>]

At 02:43 PM 7/30/99 -0700, Karl M. Hegbloom wrote:
>>>>>> "Chris" == Chris Waters <xtifr@dsp.net> writes:
>    Chris> Most newbies don't write elisp.  Most newbies, in fact,
>    Chris> don't actually experiment much.  Those that do are used to
>    Chris> things breaking for odd reasons, and they usually have
>    Chris> friends to help them.  These friends will join the chorus
>    Chris> of experienced users, saying, "this system is broken,
>    Chris> switch to Red Hat", when they *finally* figure out just
>    Chris> what is going on.
>
> A fool and his money are soon parted.  `reinstall' is how you fix
> windows...  blah blah... 1000 trite words of M$ bashing...

Frankly, I think they have a right to be annoyed. 

RTFM. Well the manual and FAQ tells me look at .emacs. Every other version
of Emacs and XEmacs looks for an .emacs. Oh, look, README.Debian explains
why Debian gratuitiously changed it. So why the &^%*^$ did Debian change it
despite it breaking compatability? Oh, yeah, fourteen hours of working on
elisp and reading manuals is really easier than adding some conditionals to
.emacs, conditionals that will have to be added if Debian does this to
XEmacs 22, or if I want someone else to use it. And what if I want to use
the same .emacs for XEmacs 20 & XEmacs 21?

(Yes, it's probably better. But what if the Debian EGCS people decided to
make gcc ignore -lm and just automatically add the math libraries when
neccessary? They would get flamed like crazy, and it would be right,
because compatibility is generally worth more than simplicity. Definetely
when people aren't going to be aware of the changes.)

(If anything, don't do this because it will reflect back on Debian and the
consensus of developers with opinions on the matter is that they don't want
it reflecting back on Debian.)
--
David Starner - dstarner98@aasaa.ofe.org (alternately dvdeug@hotmail.com)
"I would weep, but my tears have been stolen; I would shout, but my voice
has been taken. Thus, I write." - Tragic Poet