Re: 21.3: emacs -q -l cause-error.el file.txt does not load file

[Kevin Rodgers]

Jari Aalto+mail.linux wrote:
> Test case:
>
>     $ cd ~/tmp
>     $ echo error > cause-error.el
>     $ echo edit  > file.txt
>     $ emacs --no-site-file -nw -q -l cause-error.el file.txt
>     Symbol's value as variable is void: error
>
> Emacs terminates after option "-l" and the file.txt is not loaded
> for editing.
>
> I think Emacs should process all non-option command line arguments and
> display files for editing in spite of "-l" load errors in lisp packages.

I disagree.  Emacs is not like most Unix applications, in that it
doesn't really make a distinction between options and arguments and
processes them in order left-to-right.  In fact, the above command
line is exactly equivalent to:

emacs --no-site-file -nw -q -l cause-error.el --visit=file.txt

In particular, what if after visiting a file the user specifies that a
function defined in the library should be called?

emacs ... file.txt --funcall=foo --eval='(write-file "/important_file")'

> Being able to edit files is the key feature.

Predictability is a key feature as well.

--
Kevin Rodgers