[wildanimal]

I wonder why everyone writes out the function invocations to add each directory they're adding, rather than doing something like

(labels ((add-path (p) (add-to-list 'load-path (path-join emacs-root p)))) (let ((paths '("foo" "bar"))) (mapc 'add-path paths)))

Is there an advantage to writing it out?

[yrb]

I wouldn't say everyone does that. I would just say that it is a artifact of the incremental nature of building a .emacs over many years, and isn't really worth refactoring.

[wildanimal]

Sorry, meant "from my limited observation it seems that everyone"... but what you suggest makes sense.