Re: autoload and auto-compression-mode

[Luc Teirlinck]

Eli Zaretskii wrote:

   > I just kept the indentation style that was already present (it is also
   > used in several other docstrings).

   I think it should be removed.

OK, I will change the `load' docstring indentation style, although I
do _not_ intend to hunt for all the other docstrings that use the same
style as load currently uses and change them too.

   I wasn't looking for motivation of the design decision, I was looking
   for explanation how these lists and functions work together.  I think
   some minimal understanding of this is necessary to be able to
   customize and use those lists and functions.

In as far as the `customize' part is concerned, neither
`load-suffixes' nor `load-file-rep-suffixes' are user options.  In as
far as using the variables and functions is concerned, the main thing
to know is how to access the list of suffixes that load is going to
use, for instance for file name completion purposes.  The current
`load' docstring explicitly tells that this is given by the return
value of `get-load-suffixes', by the value of `load-file-rep-suffixes'
or by the concatenation of both, depending on the arguments passed to load.

Anyway, I plan to use the following expanded docstrings of
`load-suffixes' and `load-file-rep-suffixes'.  (As I already
mentioned, once the Elisp manual is properly updated, one could put in
links to the Elisp manual, which can discuss all of this in the proper
context.)

  DEFVAR_LISP ("load-suffixes", &Vload_suffixes,
         doc: /* List of suffixes for (compiled or source) Emacs Lisp files.
This list should not include the empty string.
`load' and related functions try to append these suffixes, in order,
to the specified file name if a Lisp suffix is allowed or required.  */);
  Vload_suffixes = Fcons (build_string (".elc"),
                     Fcons (build_string (".el"), Qnil));
  DEFVAR_LISP ("load-file-rep-suffixes", &Vload_file_rep_suffixes,
         doc: /* List of suffixes that indicate representations of \
the same file.
This list should normally start with the empty string.

Enabling Auto Compression mode appends the suffixes in
`jka-compr-load-suffixes' to this list and disabling Auto Compression
mode removes them again.  `load' and related functions use this list to
determine whether they should look for compressed versions of a file
and, if so, which suffixes they should try to add to the file name
in order to do so.  However, if you want to customize which suffixes
the loading functions recognize as compression suffixes, you should
customize `jka-compr-load-suffixes' rather than the present variable.  */);
  /* We don't use empty_string because it's not initialized yet.  */
  Vload_file_rep_suffixes = Fcons (build_string (""), Qnil);