Re: Emacs Installer for MS Windows

[Stefan Monnier]

> A) "c:\program files\emacs\bin\emacs.exe
> B) "c:\program files\emacs-21.3\bin\emacs.exe
> C) "c:\program files\emacs\emacs\bin\emacs.exe
> D) "c:\program files\emacs\emacs-21.3\bin\emacs.exe

I think an important aspect is "how do I upgrade" (as well as "how do
I uninstall", tho it's most common use is in the case of an upgrade).
So the choice between those depends on how well it deals with upgrades.

> I include gnuclient and wonder where to put these exe-files. Currently I use
> a structure like C) and put them in "c:\program files\emacs\w32bin". I also
> put a copy of 7za.exe from 7-zip here to be able to unpack tar.gz files.
> (With permission from the author of course.)

I recommend to keep separate packages separate (and to kep the packages as
vanilla as possible), so if you put extra packages in
c:\program files\emacs\w32bin, I'd expect you to use option B, C, or D, but
not A.

> The installer also adds some elisp files that are ms windows specific or at
> least specific for ms windows users.  Where should I put these?

If they are Windows specific, they should probably just be part of Emacs
(and/or included in one of the existing windows-specific files such as
w32-*.el).
If they are specific to your installer, I'd also tend to argue that they
should just be submitted for inclusion.

> Is site-lisp a good place or should I use a separate directory not to mix
> it with the users own or downloaded lisp files?

As the name implies "site-lisp" is for things specific to the "site",
i.e. things that the user adds on her own.  It should start empty.
But if there's stuff you need to add and you can't get it to be included in
macs proper, than site-lisp is probably the best choice indeed.

> I have found it most easy to start up these scripts in site-lisp/default.el.

I'd recommend site-start.el instead.

> Default.el is run after .emacs which means I can use customization without
> having to worry about the order in .emacs.

Putting things in site-start.el makes it behave much more like all the rest
of the default Emacs settings: they are already set when the .emacs is
executed and won't be changed afterwards, so the user can "easily" change
them if she so wishes.

> It may sound a bit strange but the installation script has now grown rather
> large and I am thinking about where to put it. I must make it a bit more
> pretty so someone else than me can understand it but after this I want to
> upload it. I would like some suggestions of a preffered location.

I don't know what this script is used for (e.g. is it used when you build
the package, or is it used when you run the installer).  The best place (if
possible at all) might be to put in the `admin' directory in the CVS
archive.


        Stefan