Re: emacs -Q not documented

[Kim F. Storm]

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:

>     The patch is trivial, but we should probably add a long name for it.
>
> I guess so--if we keep it.  But the set of things it does is not
> really coherent.
>
> It turns off all init files; it also turns off various frame features
> such as the menu bar and tool bar, it turns off tool tips,
> and it selects a different type of cursor.  There is nothing particularly
> natural or desirable about this combination.  

It is intended to be an option turn off all "extra features".

This is _extremely_ useful for reporting and debugging redisplay
problems, as it removes a lot of extra stuff that is most often
irrelevant to a specific problem.

Just like we ask people to try emacs -q for reported problems in lisp
code, it is very useful to ask a person to try reproducing a redisplay
problem with emacs -Q and if the problem exists in that situation, you
can quickly eliminate a lot of possible causes of the problem.

But most important, running emacs -Q when debugging redisplay problems
makes it much easier to know what's going on.

>                                               I see no reason to have
> a short option for it.  Perhaps we should just remove it.

Just because we cannot find a long name for it -- that's silly, IMO!
Please keep the option.  It serves the purpose it was added for very
well!!

>
> Why was -Q installed, anyway?

You approved it...



-- 
Kim F. Storm <address@hidden> http://www.cua.dk