New to Emacs

[Gian Uberto Lauri]

>>>>> "S" == Stephen  <sedelblut@hotmail.com> writes:

S> Hi, I just downloaded Emacs 21.3 precompiled windows version. I
S> want to use it for Java development. An article I am reading shows
S> how to do this, and I have downloaded several .el files. What
S> directory do I put these files in?

Any directory that appears in your load-path variable, see below.

S>  Also, the article says to
S> modify my .emacs file. I have not been able to find a .emacs file
S> in my Emacs directory. 

Windows version comes  with a BAT file and a CMD  maybe (I use Windows
only at work and now I'm on  holyday). Look at these files, they set a
HOME variable (that cames from Unix $HOME variable containing the home
directory of the user in the file system).

NT and its  successors let you set a HOME variable  in the My Computer
properties tabbed  dialog (usually is  a button called  Environment or
such).

Emacs  directory  (Windows  precompiled)  contains a  file  with  some
registry entries  that set the other  variables you see in  the CMD or
BAT files.

The .emacs  file (Windows version  of Emacs accepts _emacs  also since
Windows could have  problems with "dot files" -  they are the "hidden"
files in Unix) should reside in that directory.

If my memory isn't wrong if HOME is unset then Emacs uses C:\
 
Back to the .el files.

If you put them in C:\example then you should put in your .emacs
something like:

(setq load-path (nconc load-path (list "C:/example")))

This LISP  statement sets the load-path variable  (setq function) with
the result of the function nconc that concatenates any number of lists
(load-path is a list) by altering them.  Only the last argument is not
altered, and need not be a list. 

Therefore if at startup load-path content is 

("c:/emacs/lisp" "c:/emacs/site-lisp")

after that statement it becomes

("c:/emacs/lisp" "c:/emacs/site-lisp" . "c:/example")

The  load-path  variable  acts  like  Unix  $PATH  and  Windows  %PATH
variable.

BTW, be sure that all exe files are in directories listed in your
system PATH :).

 /\            ___
/___/\__|_|\_|__|___Gian Uberto Lauri_____________________
  //--\ | | \|  |   Integralista GNUslamico e fancazzista 
\/