Re: Finding the dump

[Daniel Colascione]

> Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>>> I plan to look
>>> into the possibility of putting the dump file inside the executable
>>> (portably,
>>> of course) so that Emacs startup needn't worry about finding the dump
>>> file. This
>>> would be significantly better for installers and users.
>> I very much doubt that you could do that portably, let alone allow
>> repeated dumping after the initial one.
>
> For repeated dumping without a C compiler present, we'd need to stick to
> something like the current approach. But hardly anybody needs repeated
> dumping,

A lot more people will want repeated dumping once it's known to be viable.
Baseline Emacs starts pretty fast, but starting Emacs for users with tons
of packages and starter kits and things is still painful. With a custom
dump file, all of that can go away. I've gotten a lot of interest in the
approach already.

> and those who do typically have a C compiler available,

Requiring a C compiler at runtime is a non-starter.

>> I really don't see why we should waste our energy on making the Emacs
>> package one file less (out of 3000 it already has).
>
> This particular file is a bigger deal than the rest because Emacs cannot
> run
> without it. Emacs can run without all those other 3000 files.

Not really it can't. There is no single-file distribution of Emacs.

>> It certainly isn't a "hassle".
>
> It's already been a hassle for us, as seen in this thread. It will be a
> hassle
> for installers and maintainers too. The separate file also slows down
> startup
> compared to the approach I have in mind.

I want to get out of the business of specially crafting executable files.
Finding the dump file isn't any additional hassle for maintainers than
finding any of the other numerous files we require today.