Newsgroups: gnu.emacs
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!snow.white.toronto.edu!cks
From: cks@white.toronto.edu (Chris Siebenmann)
Subject: Re: gnu.emacs.core ?
Message-ID: <89May25.150951edt.30756@snow.white.toronto.edu>
Organization: Ziebmef home away from home
References: <1216@infbs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 25 May 89 15:09:48 EDT

 Actually, what I'd really like to see is some structure to the lisp
directory. Right now, there's a huge amount of stuff all jumbled
together; novices have no idea what's available, and administrators
with limited disk space have problems figuring out what can be
trimmed (if, for example, your system doesn't support rmail and uses
mh-e instead). I'd propose an organization something like:

lisp/core	- core elisp needed to run a basic Emacs; things like
		  files.el and simple.el would wind up here.
lisp/terms	- already exists
lisp/modes	- various modes available, named so people can easily
		  see what they're for.
lisp/interfaces	- interfaces to various other systems (eg dbx.el,
		  mh-e.el and the various sublisp things). This might
		  have subdirectories for each interface package, eg
		  interfaces/mh. This is also a good place to put
		  window-system specific files (eg interfaces/x,
		  interfaces/suntools, etc).
lisp/packages	- for things like saveconf.el that are a bundle of
		  functions, but not a mode.
lisp/functions	- useful random functions; eg cl.el
lisp/misc	- things that don't fit into any of the above categories
lisp/contrib	- contributed elisp code that hasn't been really
		  looked at by the FSF. Code in here should normally
		  either be dropped or migrated into one of the above
		  directories depending on whether people use it or
		  not.

 The only things left in lisp would then be a few odd files, such as
default.el, site-init.el, and so on (or perhaps these could get
demoted to lisp/local).

 Also needed is some sort of a README giving a one or two-line
description of what each elisp file does for you. This would allow new
users to browse over it and find out interesting things to try out
(like saveconf.el, which I only found about by reading the
changes-in-Emacs file -- and I only read that because I'm the admin
here).

 If people are interested in this, I'll volunteer to start putting
together a README and a suggested list of what elisp files get moved
to what directories.

-- 
	"I shall clasp my hands together and bow to the corners of the world."
			Number Ten Ox, "Bridge of Birds"
Chris Siebenmann		...!utgpu!{ncrcan,ontmoh!moore}!ziebmef!cks
cks@white.toronto.edu	     or ...!utgpu!{,csri!}cks