Re: Deprecate _emacs on Windows

[Juanma Barranquero]

On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 01:58, Drew Adams <address@hidden> wrote:

> (Or will you scour the user's hard drive for a `_emacs' file just so you can
> warn about it not having been used?)

Yes, Drew, that's exactly what I will do, because in my free time I'm
secretly a James Bond cat-petting villain.

> Google "warning".  Enjoy.

Sorry, but I'm not convinced. Words mean what people use them to mean.

> ad hominem, ad hominem.  Sticks and stones...

My comment wasn't an argument ad hominem; I don't think your arguments
are incorrect because of who you are. I think you're using a lot (a
*lot*) of patronizing, independently of the validity of your technical
(sorry, political... sorry, social... antropological? philosophical?
legal? historical?) arguments.

> It's not about you, Juanma - and it's not about me.  It's about the
> pseudo-warning message, regardless of who is behind that initiative.

Oh, yes, it is a bit about you, as you're the one royaly pissed by the
warning... on behalf of some semi-mythical users that you somehow
stand to protect. You know, that great contingent of / Emacs 24+ /
Windows / users / having an _emacs init file /.

> The message is not warning about anything.  It's simply telling a user that
> `_emacs' is deprecated.  That's not a warning.  There is no danger.

Of course there is a danger. The danger of the user upgrading to a new
Emacs and failing to understand why their _emacs suddenly stopped
working[1]. In fact, if we don't warn about it, some users will be
caught unawares.

[1] Yes, I'm using singular they.

> We don't need to tell users this at Emacs startup - it's not a big deal that
> `_emacs' is being deprecated.  Users are often frightened by "**WARNING**" - 
> and
> that's part of its effect.  But there is no call for frightening users here.

They shouldn't be frightened. They should be warned.

    Juanma