Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!ima!haddock!karl
From: karl@haddock.ISC.COM (Karl Heuer)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: load-path code
Summary: Why expand-file-name is the way to go
Message-ID: <2596@haddock.ISC.COM>
Date: 16 Feb 88 23:50:24 GMT
References: <8802111252.AA18432@PTT.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: karl@haddock.ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer)
Organization: Interactive Systems, Boston
Lines: 19

In article <8802111252.AA18432@PTT.LCS.MIT.EDU> markl@PTT.LCS.MIT.EDU writes:
>[msb@ho5cad.ATT.COM writes:]
>>[karl@haddock.ima.isc.com writes that a better solution is:]
>>>(setq load-path (cons (expand-file-name "~/lib/emacs") load-path))
>>Why is this a "better solution"?
>
>"Better" is not the right word in the sense that it is faster or more
>efficient; I think "more elegant" is a better choice.  There is a
>minimum amount of complexity in the expression, which makes it easy to
>understand.

Moreover, it uses the same filename convention as the rest of Emacs.  I didn't
mention it in my previous posting, but what I *really* use in my .emacs is
  (setq load-path (cons (expand-file-name "~karl/lib/emacs") load-path))
so that it will do the right thing even if I borrow someone else's account and
use "emacs -u karl".  None of the other proposed solutions will allow this
generalization.

Karl W. Z. Heuer (ima!haddock!karl or karl@haddock.isc.com), The Walking Lint