Re: Autoloads and (t . SYM) in load-history

[Stefan Monnier]

>     What was the reason for the following change ?
> 
> I think it was for the sake of unload-feature, to turn the
> function back into an autoload.
> 
>     There's already another convention related to the above when
>     a function is autoloaded.  It involves the `autoload' symbol
>     property and the Vautoload_queue variable.
> 
> I guess it would work to use Vautoload_queue at the end of loading
> to update the load history, instead of doing it directly as I did.
> I am not sure this is worth doing.  It might be easier just to add
> a comment on each mechanism pointing to the other one.
> 
> One complication in combining them is that Vautoload_queue is set up
> only when loading for the sake of an autoload.  For other calls to
> load, Vautoload_queue is not used.
> 
> Also, the name Vautoload_queue is misleading because that variable
> is not a Lisp variable.  The name should probably be changed.

I was thinking of merging things as follows:

- Keep your changes, except that instead of pushing (t . FUN)
  onto the load history, we add the autoload data to the
  `autoload' symbol property.
- Instead of using Vautoload_queue, we rely on the `autoload'
  symbol property and the load-history in un_autoload (which
  is also used by Frequire).

That would also be a good step towards merging un_autoload
and unload-feature.


        Stefan