Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site mit-eddie.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!mly@PREP.AI.MIT.EDU
From: mly@PREP.AI.MIT.EDU
Newsgroups: net.emacs
Subject: GNU emacs reads terminal file
Message-ID: <18@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 24-Feb-86 20:27:01 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.18
Posted: Mon Feb 24 20:27:01 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Feb-86 00:15:01 EST
Sender: daemon@mit-eddi.UUCP
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 36

From: mly@PREP.AI.MIT.EDU (Richard Mlynarik)
   From: faron!ell@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (Edward L. Lafferty)
   Newsgroups: net.emacs
   Date: Sat, 22-Feb-86 13:58:29 EST

   We are running GNU emacs version 17.49. The new terminal file reading
   feature is very nice but we think it should not overwrite the users'
   customized .emacs bindings. Suggestions for future release:

This is possible in emacs 17.49 (thanks for including your version
number, unlike so many people) by setting the  variable
`term-file-prefix' to nil -- see the code in emacs/lisp/startup.el
which looks at this variable.  Admittedly, this isn't well documented
at this point.

I notice that the fix for this which Barry Shein sent was for some
older version of emacs -- the check for term-file-prefix was put in on
the 21st of January, which means that it was in 17.43, if not a couple
of versions earlier.

   1. Read ../lisp/term/TERMINAL.el before reading .emacs.
That wouldn't be desirable -- then the user's .emacs file would have
not way to inhibit the loading of that file at all.

   2. Give user the option NOT to have the TERMINAL.el file read at all
   -- probably a command line option.

In general, I think it is better to do things via .emacs (and have
the user's .emacs lisp code arrange to be as smart or obtrusive as it
wants to be about this question) than to add Yet Another Random Unix
"-" Switch.  But that's just my opinion.


A general warning is that unconditionally binding terminal-dependent
key-sequences in ~/.emacs without testing `(getenv "TERM")' is a Bad
Idea.