Re: Sharing mail icons between MH-E and Gnus

[Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>]

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.
It's also conceivable that using a temporary load-path/image-load-path
might invalidate image caching schemes.

>                                    Assume you have unbundled versions
> of Gnus and MH-E installed using Emacs 21. Which path should win, if
> we both use the same variable?

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.

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?

At any rate, since we're coordinating now, those icons will probably be
the same anyway, so I don't think that this will be much of a problem.

> (defmacro gmm-defun-compat (name function arg-list &rest body)

We've borrowed so much from Gnus, I'd be tickled pink if Gnus borrowed
from MH-E ;-).

> (defun gmm-image-load-path (library &optional image path)

For the generalized function, we might want to make IMAGE non-optional
so that we don't have MH-E and Gnus icons in the code.

>   ;; Return augmented `image-load-path' or `load-path'.
>   (cond ((and path (symbolp path))
> 	 (nconc (list gmm-image-load-path) (symbol-value path)))
> 	(t
> 	 (nconc (list gmm-image-load-path) load-path))))

Now it's my turn not to like the code ;-). This doesn't use
image-load-path if it exists. It can add the image directory even if it
already exists on path.

I was going to argue against the path argument, but it would be
consistent with image-search-load-path. I think it's a good idea,
however, to return the modified list.

I guess the big question is whether to modify image-load-path
(load-path) or not. It would be good for a few others to weigh in. It
would be good to solicit opinions from the folks on emacs-devel too.
I'll do that.

-- 
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.


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