Re: Sharing mail icons between MH-E and Gnus

[Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>]

Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> wrote:

> On Mon, Feb 20 2006, Bill Wohler wrote:
> 
> > Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> wrote:
> >
> >> I don't like that `mh-image-load-path' changes the variables
> >> `load-path' or `image-load-path'.
> >
> > I'm not sure I agree. Taking this argument to an extreme conclusion,
> > both load-path and image-load-path would always be empty. Leaving the
> > path to our images on these paths makes it more clear to the user (or
> > developer) where the images came from, if that needs to be discovered.
> 
> `C-h v tool-bar RET' displays stuff like this for me:
> 
>  (Preview menu-item "Preview" mml-preview
> 	  ([3 13 80]
> 	   . "  (C-c RET P)")
> 	  :image
> 	  (image :type xpm :file "[...]/emacs/etc/images/mail/preview.xpm"))

Cool!

> > And what if the user adds his own images to image-load-path (if he
> > defined a theme, if you will) and expects to see his images rather than
> > yours? Since you didn't leave your path on the image-load-path, he would
> > be confused since he wouldn't see where they came from.
> 
> I though that the variable `gmm-image-load-path' (or
> mh-image-load-path) is intended for this.
> 
> BTW, if you/we call it *-path it should be a list (else: *-directory).

Thanks. Good thinking.

> > Hmmm, this argues that we would want prepend the default Emacs path
> > (since a newer Gnus/MH-E package might have newer images than the one
> > distributed with an old version of Emacs) and append to any user-defined
> > paths (since the user is always right). Is that possible?
> 
> - We (or `image.el') could use an additional `*-user-image-load-path'
>   and always prepend this.

Hmmm, that might work.

-- 
Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>  http://www.newt.com/wohler/  GnuPG ID:610BD9AD
Maintainer of comp.mail.mh FAQ and MH-E. Vote Libertarian!
If you're passed on the right, you're in the wrong lane.