Re: Summary and next steps for (package-initialize)

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Stefan Monnier <address@hidden>
> Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2017 05:04:58 -0400
> 
> > I think we should instead explore the possibility that
> > package-initialize will be called only in startup.el.
> 
> I think this is unlikely to work well.

As I said, we should explore this in more detail, and have a detailed
and agreed-upon list of reasons why it's not TRT.  Doing this kind of
stuff in startup.el is quite standard and natural.  If we don't
analyze this possibility and have the data and conclusions on file,
this possibility will continue to pop up, and we potentially could
miss an opportunity to provide a robust and much less annoying
solution than what we have now.

So if you can elaborate the "unlikely" part, please do.

> - call package-initialize before reading ~/.emacs (this will require
>   finding some way to handle the case where the user wants to change
>   package.el's configuration in his .emacs).
> - call package-initialize automatically when needed, by having a more
>   declarative way to configure packages in ~/.emacs.
> 
> The first approach looks easier from where I sit, but that's just
> a gut feeling.

This is hard to interpret without knowing "where you sit".