RE: New start up splash screen annoyance...

[Drew Adams]

> one could make the splash screen appear regardless the very first
> time Emacs were run, in that if no .emacs were present it would
> automatically write one that suppressed the splash-screen-with-arguments
> behavior.

Yes, the splash screen is useful for a first use of Emacs, and its
usefulness diminishes over time.

FWIW, I do something similar to give new Icicles users a help reminder in
the prompt. It is there only for N Emacs sessions, but a user can override
this behavior. FWIW, this is what I do:

(defcustom icicle-reminder-prompt-flag 7
  "*Whether to include a help reminder in minibuffer prompt.
nil means never use the reminder.
Non-nil means use the reminder, if space permits:
 An integer value means use only for that many Emacs sessions.
 t means always use it."
  :type
  '(choice
    (const   :tag "Never use a reminder in the prompt" nil)
    (const   :tag "Always use a reminder in the prompt" t)
    (integer :tag "Use a reminder in the prompt for this sessions"
             :value 7))
  :group 'Icicles-Minibuffer-Display)

Icicle minor mode then adds/removes `icicle-control-reminder-prompt' to/from
`kill-emacs-hook'.

(defun icicle-control-reminder-prompt ()
  "If `icicle-reminder-prompt-flag' > 0, decrement it and save it.
Used in `kill-emacs-hook'."
  (when (and (wholenump icicle-reminder-prompt-flag)
             (> icicle-reminder-prompt-flag 0))
    (condition-case nil ; Because it's on `kill-emacs-hook.
        (customize-save-variable
          'icicle-reminder-prompt-flag
          (1- icicle-reminder-prompt-flag))
      (error nil))))