Re: How to quote a list of functions?

[Pascal J. Bourguignon]

Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> writes:

> "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com>
> writes:
>
>> A lot of emacs configuration can and is performed
>> without having the corresponding packages loaded.
>> Notably, with the autoload feature, packages are
>> loaded only when you first use an autoload command.
>> Therefore indeed, all the commands and functions
>> that are not autoload, won't be defined when you
>> configure them, and therefore you will have to use
>> symbols to designate those functions that will be
>> defined in the future. Or else you need to load
>> them first.
>
> This reminds me of another discussion which is of
> attitude and style rather than right or wrong: should
> you load everything first thing or should you load
> them when you need them?
>
> My take is if the stuff don't slow down the
> interactive feel they should be loaded first thing, as
> then you are yourself still warming up. Here, you can
> afford waiting the extra couple of seconds. One or two
> hours later when you are deep into the zone and your
> brain is in overdrive then loading stuff can be
> perceived as very tedious, especially if loading
> doesn't work out alright and some detail needs to be
> fixed. It is then much better to realize that first
> thing, so it won't interrupt "real" work when you are
> deep into it.

Agreed.

> The assumption is of course that all the loaded stuff
> actually won't slow down the interactive feel.
> Actually that is precisely what happens. Compared to
> 'emacs -Q', my Emacs isn't as fast by far. I once
> tried to quantify the difference, but the batch
> workloads don't catch the interactive feel
> responsiveness and the results weren't telling.
> But I can feel it just by using the two instances.
> However, the interactive feel is still very fast even
> with all the loads, so it is OK, besides it is an open
> question which is preferable: "slow" and steady, or
> fast and gradually getting "slow" (which will
> happen step by step with all the JIT loads). It is
> like people always say they get more drunk with liquor
> than beer, but I always say it is the change being
> a steeper curve, thus more noticable, and actually
> they get just as drunk with beer.

There's a difference between "loaded" and "activated".  

What slows down are the hooks, filters, and things like font-locking
that works all the time.  Special care should be given to
post-command-hook.  

But nowadays, font-locking mainly works in the background (ie. at idle
times).

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                 http://www.informatimago.com/
“The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a
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