Re: Default emacs init file location confusion

[Robert Pluim]

>>>>> On Wed, 08 Jan 2020 19:01:42 +0200, Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> said:

    >> From: Robert Pluim <address@hidden>
    >> Cc: Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden>,  Stefan Monnier
    >> <address@hidden>,  address@hidden,  address@hidden,
    >> address@hidden
    >> Date: Wed, 08 Jan 2020 17:49:30 +0100
    >> 
    >> >>>>> On Wed, 08 Jan 2020 11:41:58 -0500, "Mingde (Matthew) Zeng" 
<address@hidden> said:
    >> 
    >> >> A directory ~/.config/emacs should not exist unless the user
    >> >> wants to switch to using it, and preferring an existing ~/.emacs.d
    >> >> even if ~/.config/emacs does exist will protect those who somehow
    >> >> create the latter by accident.
    >> 
    Mingde> Sounds good to me.
    >> 
    >> That sounds like my earlier patch

    Eli> It's close.  I'd like us to prefer ~/.emacs.d, if it exists, even if
    Eli> ~/.config/emacs also exists.  I don't think your patch did that.  Am I
    Eli> wrong?

It didnʼt indeed. However, you said earlier:

    Eli> This will make the new XDG compliant directory an opt-in
    Eli> feature: users who want that will have to create
    Eli> ~/.config/emacs, move there the contents of ~/.emacs.d, and
    Eli> then delete the latter, in order to have Emacs use the XDG
    Eli> convention.

If we prefer ~/.config/emacs if it exists, then people who read NEWS
and want to try out the XDG stuff can just copy ~/.emacs.d to
~/.config/emacs and would not have to delete .emacs.d. If they then
change their mind they can simply delete ~/.config/emacs.

I donʼt think itʼs likely that people will accidentally create
~/.config/emacs, so preferring it should not cause any surprises (plus
I feel that 'use x if it exists, else use y' is less prone to
confusion than 'use x if it exists unless y exists').

Robert