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GNU Emacs Calc 2.02 Manual

A.5 Finding Component Files

There is no need to write autoload commands that point to all the various Calc component files like `calc-misc.elc' and `calc-alg.elc'. The main file, `calc.elc', contains all the necessary autoload commands for these files.

(Actually, to conserve space `calc.elc' only autoloads a few of the component files, plus `calc-ext.elc', which in turn autoloads the rest of the components. This allows Calc to load a little faster in the beginning, but the net effect is the same.)

This autoloading mechanism assumes that all the component files can be found on the load-path. The `make public' and `make private' commands take care of this, but Calc has a few other strategies in case you have installed it in an unusual way.

If, when Calc is loaded, it is unable to find its components on the load-path it is given, it checks the file name in the original autoload command for calc-dispatch. If that name included directory information, Calc adds that directory to the load-path:

(autoload 'calc-dispatch "calc-2.00/calc" "Calculator" t)

Suppose the directory `/usr/gnu/src/emacs/lisp' is on the path, and the above autoload allows Emacs to find Calc under the name `/usr/gnu/src/emacs/lisp/calc-2.00/calc.elc'. Then when Calc starts up it will add `/usr/gnu/src/emacs/lisp/calc-2.00' to the path so that it will later be able to find its component files.

If the above strategy does not locate the component files, Calc examines the variable calc-autoload-directory. This is initially nil, but you can store the name of Calc's home directory in it as a sure-fire way of getting Calc to find its components.