Re: master f8bb6cca33: Return the same file from locate-file in nativecomp and non

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>
> Cc: larsi@gnus.org,  emacs-devel@gnu.org
> Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2022 20:20:38 -0400
> 
> >> AFAIK it reverts the behavior of `locate-file-internal` to that of
> >> Emacs-27
> > Emacs 27 behavior cannot guide us here, because the *.eln files and
> > the aspects they bring into the issue are new.
> 
> `locate-file` is a function looks for files with a given set of
> extensions through path.  That's it.  Nothing specific to ELisp files.
> E.g. it's used in `executable-find`.
> 
> The existence of `.eln` should have no bearing on this.

Are you sure?  We never discussed this seriously.

E.g., is the result below expected, or is it a bug?

  (locate-file "simple" native-comp-eln-load-path '(".eln"))
    => nil

Or what about load-history -- why does it only show the *.elc files
loaded by the session, but not the *.eln files?  Should it?  (This
discussion was triggered by a conflict between load-history and
locate-file, so load-history is definitely relevant to the issue at
hand.)

> It can affect the ELisp-specific code (such as `load` or
> `find-library`), which may indeed use `locate-file` internally, but it
> should not affect `locate-file` itself.

It didn't until now.  But one can argue that it was only so because
the .el and its .elc file usually live in the same directory and have
the same basename.  That is no longer true with *.eln files, so we
should perhaps stop and think about this a bit harder.  E.g., maybe a
simpleton that locate-file is no longer satisfies us for looking up
Lisp files?

> >> so I'd even suggest we install my patch in `emacs-28`.
> > Do we want to release Emacs 28 any time soon, or do we want to
> > continue dragging our feet by making destabilizing changes in it?
> 
> Notice that I did not install it on `emacs-28` nor asked to do that.

Is there such a big difference between "ask" (which you didn't) and
"would suggest" (which you did)?