Value of `dir-locals-file' [was: Add a separate mode for .dir-locals.el]

[Drew Adams]

> Too late now, but perhaps .dir-locals.el should have not used the .el 
> extension. Perhaps we should've reserved .el for lisp code (in the usual 
> meaning of the term).

> .dir-locals.el is just a configuration file, even if it contains elisp data. 
>.emacs.desktop is a save file containing real elisp code (I mean, function 
>calls like setq and desktop-create-buffer, not just data lists) and it's not 
>called .emacs-desktop.el, after all. As a consequence, I imagine, of nobody 
>usually either editing or directly loading .emacs.desktop (though I've edited 
>it a few times).

+1.

Same for your bookmarks file.  You can call it
anything, including `foo.el', but the default
name is `.emacs.bmk'.

Maybe someone who named the file `.dir-locals.el'
thought that eventually it might have Lisp code
in it?  Or perhaps this question just wasn't
considered?

Variable `dir-locals-file' is a constant - it's
intended as a variable.  Why is that?  Perhaps
its value should be changed from `.dir-locals.el'?
(Default value, if it becomes a variable variable.)