Re: Files in wrong subdirs of emacs/lisp?

[Richard Stallman]

Thanks for looking for these rearrangements.  I agree with you on many
of them, so I'll comment on the ones I disagree with.

    Into emulations:
            delsel.el
            s-region.el

These are not specifically for emulation; they are just optional
features.

    Into net:
            terminal.el

terminal.el has nothing in particular to do with the net.
It just emulates a terminal.

    Into progmodes:
            cdl.el

This seems to be a mode for editing a "data language",
so I don't think it belongs in progmodes.

            hexl.el
            skeleton.el

hexl mode is for examining binary files,
and skeleton.el is a sort of advanced Emacs macro facility.
Neither of them particularly has to do with developing or debugging
programs outside Emacs.

    Into textmodes:

These modes are for editing "text" in the sense of "files whose
contents are written in a human language for humans to read".

            add-log.el

I don't think of change logs as "text" in this sense.

            arc-mode.el
            tar-mode.el

Archive files certainly are not text.

            forms.el
            forms-*.*

I don't think these concern text, in the appropriate sense.
The canonical example is /etc/passwd, which is not a file
of text meant for humans to read.

            jka-compr.el

Compression has nothing to do with whether the file's contents are
text.

            ses.el

A spreadsheet certainly isn't text.

    Create a new `vc' subdirectory:

It is very useful to have identified a good candidate for
a new coherent subdirectory.  Thanks.

The name `vc' would be slightly misleading, because that refers to the
feature implemented by the vc*.el files.  It would be stretching
things to include anything but vc*.el in a directory with that name,
and including diff* and ediff* would be a big stretch.

So please use the name `versioning' instead.  That concept is more
abstract, but still clear.  With that name, diff* and ediff* fit
naturally.

    It could also be considered to make a new `help' subdir for things like:

It is undesirable to make a new subdirectory with just 12 source files.
We don't want to make lots of small subdirectories.

If we could come up with a good name in which both documentation
and customization fit, then I think it would reach the threshold
of being a good idea.