Re: Folding emacsclient into emacs

[Robert J. Chassell]

dhruva <address@hidden> wrote,

   1. if the user does not have a dot emacs (here we assume a seasoned
   emacs user will have a dot emacs).

That is not true.  OK, I see that your option 2c handles the case with
`-q' in the start string.

Please do not confuse us readers by saying something early on that you
contradict later.  Please begin your message by writing, `1. Other
than in 2c below, if the user does not have a dot emacs ...'  You know
what you plan to say, but we don't.

        c. If there is way to store the dot emacs compatibility by
           storing versions in a list, we could check if the current
           version of emacs is newer than the one for which dot emacs
           was written. Show the splash screen and an option to
           disable by adding the current version into the list.

I load different initialization files depending on which version of
Emacs I am loading.

            The list can be similar to 'custom-set-variables'
            /'custom-set-faces'.

Or it can or should be a simple setq expression in your initialization
file.  Remember, an experienced user depends more on writing setq
expressions in his or her initialization file than on putting
custom-set-variables or custom-set-faces expressions in his or her
initialization file.  Running a customize command or adjusting an
initialization file is more time consuming that simply writing a setq
expression.

   ... If someone is trying
   to open a file from command line, it is clear the user wants to edit a
   file and not get interrupted by a startup screen.

No, that is not clear.

Such a person might be a newbie who assumes that Emacs is an editor.
After all, that is what it describes itself as.  (That is a mistake,
in my opinion, but that is a different matter.)  

That person might not realize that Emacs is much more than an editor
and that you stay in it all the time, like a window manager with a
shell or with icons that invoke commands.  In Emacs, you save time by
visiting a file directly rather than by leaving an existing Emacs and
starting another.

Few start X or a restricted window manager such as those produced by
Microsoft every time he or she visits a file.  (I know, there are some
users who must start an instance of Emacs on a different machine to
visit one file.  They will then shut the connection.  For them the
option that RMS wrote is worth while.)

On the whole, most keep Emacs going all the time.  If they need
different instances for different reasons, such as for different
projects, they keep several Emacs going.  Perhaps they miniaturise
those instances they are not using or put them into different
consoles.  (I `roll up' extra instances in the same `desktop'
display.)

In any case, nowadays, most users always have an Emacs, a tiling
window manager, running in a non-tiling window manager.  Only a few
operate Emacs in a console.  (Also those running Emacs in a non-tiling
window manager may connect to a remote machine in an xterm and not use
Tramp.)

--
    Robert J. Chassell                          GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
    address@hidden                         address@hidden
    http://www.rattlesnake.com                  http://www.teak.cc