Re: Default emacs init file location confusion

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Stefan Monnier <address@hidden>
> Cc: address@hidden,  address@hidden,  address@hidden,
>   address@hidden,  address@hidden
> Date: Wed, 08 Jan 2020 11:28:42 -0500
> 
> >> Still, a warning when both are present would be welcome.
> > Not here, it isn't.  We had something similar with MS-Windows users
> > when we moved from the C:/.emacs default, and it was a source of
> > endless annoyances.  No more, please.
> 
> Do you remember details of the annoyance?

The message itself.

> Why did people have two .emacs files (and kept them both)?

Old files tend to stay put, I guess.

> Maybe these problems wouldn't apply to the ~/.config/emacs -vs- ~/.emacs.d
> case, but if they do, it would be good to keep a written trace of it
> somewhere to avoid falling back into that trap even after you forgot
> about it ;-)

I prefer to fix this problem in a way that won't require any warnings
and user interaction.  I think making the new feature be more
backward-compatible will provide such a solution.  We never needed to
warn people about opt-in features, so I see no reason to do that
here.  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.