It has been a looong time since I last looked at this. I think
I added "localdir" as a home for locally added files, so that the
main "dir" could be left intact from the Emacs distribution. This
helps a lot when it comes time to install a new version of Emacs.
As I recall, RMS invented a different mechanism to solve the same
problem. It may be that "localdir" is absent because his solution
prevailed. I really can't remember the details, though.
-- Dave
At 09:26 AM 3/4/2000 -0500, Karl Berry wrote:
> Yeah, I'm here. What's the compelling reason to remove a feature that
> exists in Emacs Info?
>
>(1) grep doesn't find the string localdir in the emacs/20.6/lisp/ files.
>
>(2) what I'm asking is, why does the feature exist in the first place?
> It must have been useful for some reason to search for dir files
> under the name "localdir" as well as "dir", but I can't guess what
> it is. Can you tell me?
>
>Thanks,
>Karl
>
>
>Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 13:32:03 -0800
>From: "Brian J. Fox" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Re: texinfo-4.0: Crashes on Red Hat 6.1 system
>
>
> Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2000 22:19:58 -0500
> From: Karl Berry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> It's another name that can be used for (presumably locally
> installed) dir files. The Info reader looks for `dir' and
> `localdir' in each directory
>
> Right, I knew that part, sorry I wasn't clear. The question is, why was
> localdir invented? Why should localdir be read as well as dir?
>
> There's a note in the ChangeLog that says:
>
> Mon Jan 25 10:59:49 1993 Brian Fox (bfox@cubit)
> * info/dir.c: New file implements Gillespies `localdir' hacks.
>
> Which is less than illuminating. In the absence of any compelling
> arguments to the contrary, I don't see any reason to keep supporting
> localdir ... Brian, are you there?
>
>Yeah, I'm here. What's the compelling reason to remove a feature that
>exists in Emacs Info?
