RE: "Emacs Lisp Packages" chapter in the Emacs manual

[Drew Adams]

> > 2) Now, it seems that there is no consensus about what to put in the
> init
> > file to have that file load automatically when emacs starts, which is
> what
> > a user would like to do.
> 
> [ The first step is of course to make sure the file is found from
>   `load-path`.  ]
> 
> If the file is needed simply because the user decided to split their
> `.emacs` file into several separate files, then `load` (or `require`)
> is probably fine.  That is the case where the file is a configuration
> file, i.e. loading it changes Emacs's behavior.
> 
> If OTOH that other file is a package/library which provides a
> particular feature (in which case, loading the file *should not*
> change Emacs's behavior), then usually what should be done is add
> a few `autoload`s to load the file on-demand.

+1