RE: How to customize load-path in v21.2.1?

[Bingham, Jay]

Now that I look closer at what is displayed by 20.4 I see that I overlooked 
that line, sorry about that.  Now I understand what you mean by "customizable". 
 Since I do not like the way that "custom" messes with my .emacs I avoid using 
it if at all possible.

A search through the Emacs News (Help > Emacs News) yields the following in the 
section on 21.1:

** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.

You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
because it now contains a version-dependent component.  You can still
use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
`~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.

I assume that the link that used to be there invoked customize-variable.

Having discovered the above information I went to the Options menu and 
selecting Customize Emacs > Settings Matching Regexp..., set the regexp to 
load-path, edited the load-path that was displayed in the resulting *Customize 
Apropos* buffer and saved it for a future session.  I then opened up my .emacs 
and looked at what was put into the file.

Now I think that I understand why this capability was removed.  Customize puts 
the entire load path into your .emacs, not just the things you changed.  Since 
the default load path has version-specific components in the directory 
specifications it is not a good idea to have those hard coded in your .emacs 
file when you upgrade to a new version of emacs.  The version-specific 
components were present in the directory specifications as far back as 20.4, so 
even then it was a dangerous thing to do.  It is much safer to customize your 
load path by adding to the default load path, then you do not have to edit your 
.emacs file to change the load path when you upgrade.

-_
J_)
C_)ingham
.    HP - NonStop Austin Software & Services - Software Quality Assurance
.    Austin, TX
. Language is the apparel in which your thoughts parade in public.
. Never clothe them in vulgar and shoddy attire.          -Dr. George W. Crane-

 -----Original Message-----
From:   Da Witch [mailto:heather710101@yahoo.com] 
Sent:   Tuesday, October 29, 2002 12:22 PM
To:     help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject:        Re: How to customize load-path in v21.2.1?

In <mailman.1035914973.24180.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org> "Bingham, Jay" 
<Jay.Bingham@hp.com> writes:

>I don't know what the variable documentation in your version 21.2 says, =
>but I would hope that it says the same thing that mine does in both 21.2 =
>and 20.4, which is:

In 20.7.2, the last line in the *Help* buffer for describe-variable
load-path is "You can customize this variable."  (The word "customize"
is a link to a customization screen.)  This line does not appear in
21.2.1.

hk

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