Re: newer versions of emacs file open

[Tim X]

"admin@mmri.us" <admin@mmri.us> writes:

> I am using emacs for as long as I can remember about 10+ years.
> There must be something I dont understand, because it could NEVER save
> settings in $HOME/.emacs
> Everytime I reinstall the servers everyone needs to fight their way to get
> their old settings working again.
> This happened from RH5-FC7
> I can save settings all I want, but a new emacs installation ignores the old
> settings.
> For example I have a lot of syntax highlighting and custom debuggers etc etc
> which does not get saved.
> Whenever I start a new installed version, pop goes the weasel.

That sounds very odd. I've been using emacs since version 19 and my .emacs
has evolved steadily through using versions 19, 20, 21 and now 22. There
have only been two issues I've come across -

1. Sometimes, when moving to a new version, I have to remove/change
existing settings due to minor changes in emacs (i.e. variable names, minor
lisp changes etc). The largest change I can remember was with font-locking,
which has changed a fair bit (i.e. jit font locking, console font-locking
and increased standardisation in how it works etc). 

2. Add new bits to customize new features/behavior. Sometimes this has been
slightly annoying because I don't like the changed behavior (i.e. new
splash screen behavior in current CVS), but a quick scan of the NEWS and
PROBLEMS files when moving to a new version usually gets things sorted very
quickly. 

I think its a pity so few bother to check the NEWS and PROBLEMS files when
they move to a new version. The majority of posts I see to this group after
a new version is released deal with issues that are almost always covered
in these two files and they usually tell you how to get/restore old
behavior for things that have changed the defaults etc. I highly recommend
checking these files when moving to a new version - it will/can save hours
of trying to work things out using apropos et al.

Over the years, I've been moving more and more towards using customize
rather than hand crafted elisp customizations and load hooks. I think this
tends to make things more robust when moving to different versions. Most of
my .emacs that is not in the customize section is for specific user
customization that is not handled by customize. I did find it was a bit
inconsistent and had some minor issues in version 20, but now, in version
22, it seems pretty good.

What (if any) command line arguments do you use when starting emacs. I've
seen setups that use -q and then load a personal .emacs via -u or explicit
loading of the file. This can have the unfortunate side effect of
preventing customize from writing/saving settings back tot he file. 

Tim

-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au