Re: source-directory, installed Emacs, and C source

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Spencer Baugh <sbaugh@janestreet.com>
> Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2023 11:13:33 -0400
> 
> > Why would the Lisp sources not be available where Emacs installs them,
> > i.e. in the /usr/share tree?
> 
> If the user ./configure'd Emacs to not install them because they prefer
> to jump to source-directory instead.  That's what I meant by:

How do you configure Emacs not to install the Lisp files?  And why?

> >This would be a great improvement for users who keep source-directory
> >around (since now Emacs jumps straight to your source repo, allowing
> >easy modifications, and also you can skip installing Lisp source files
> >with Emacs)

Emacs is supposed to be installed _with_ Lisp files.  It is important
to let users modify the Lisp files when they need.  So I'm not sure we
want to support an installation where Lisp files are not available.
There are also technical reasons: e.g., in Emacs that supports native
compilation, if the Lisp file cannot be found in the expected place,
Emacs will not JIT-compile the files natively, contrary to user
expectations.