Re: Emacs unconditionally loads tramp.el

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Michael Albinus <address@hidden>
> Cc: address@hidden,  address@hidden,  address@hidden,  address@hidden
> Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2006 21:58:09 +0200
> 
> ;; Handlers for partial tramp file names. For GNU Emacs just
> ;; `file-name-all-completions' is needed. The other ones are necessary
> ;; for XEmacs.
> 
> But this problem has reached XEmacs mailing lists as well. I fear a
> general solution is needed.

If a general solution is possible, it's preferable.  But of not, it's
better not to punish both platforms, even if that means the default
behavior is slightly different.

> (defconst tramp-completion-file-name-regexp-unified "^/[^/:][^/]*$")
> 
> A user would need to type at least one additional character after the
> leading "/" in order to get Tramp loaded. But this still will happen
> without typing <TAB> or so, just due to `expand-file-name´.

I don't think this solves the problem, at least not mine: I rarely
type TAB right after the first slash.

> Meanwhile, I doubt whether it is worth the trouble. We could revert
> the patch, and would fall back to the following scenario:
> 
> - After starting Emacs, there is no hostname completion for remote file
>   names.
> - After using the first remote file name, Tramp is loaded, and
>   hostname completion is active.
> - If a user wants to use hostname completion immediately after
>   starting Emacs, a simple (require 'tramp) in .emacs is sufficient.

If we go this way, I think it's better to have an explicit option
rather that ask users to load Tramp.  That's because, no matter how
well we document this, it's a counter-intuitive kludge.  It is also
not nice to have behavior changed when a package is loaded that has no
clear relation to the behavior we are discussing (i.e. host name
completion).