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   Many people in the GNU Emacs community have written extensions to
Emacs.  As time goes by, these extensions are often included in new
releases.  For example, the Calendar and Diary packages are now part of
the standard GNU Emacs.

   (Calc, which I consider a vital part of Emacs, would be part of the
standard distribution except that it was so large it was packaged
separately and no one has changed that.)

   You can use a `load' command to evaluate a complete file and thereby
install all the functions and variables in the file into Emacs.  For
example:

     (load "~/emacs/slowsplit")

   This evaluates, i.e. loads, the `slowsplit.el' file or if it exists,
the faster, byte compiled `slowsplit.elc' file from the `emacs'
sub-directory of your home directory.  The file contains the function
`split-window-quietly', which John Robinson wrote in 1989.

   The `split-window-quietly' function splits a window with the minimum
of redisplay.  I installed it in 1989 because it worked well with the
slow 1200 baud terminals I was then using.  Nowadays, I only
occasionally come across such a slow connection, but I continue to use
the function because I like the way it leaves the bottom half of a
buffer in the lower of the new windows and the top half in the upper
window.

   To replace the key binding for the default
`split-window-vertically', you must also unset that key and bind the
keys to `split-window-quietly', like this:

     (global-unset-key "\C-x2")
     (global-set-key "\C-x2" 'split-window-quietly)

   If you load many extensions, as I do, then instead of specifying the
exact location of the extension file, as shown above, you can specify
that directory as part of Emacs' `load-path'.  Then, when Emacs loads a
file, it will search that directory as well as its default list of
directories.  (The default list is specified in `paths.h' when Emacs is
built.)

   The following command adds your `~/emacs' directory to the existing
load path:

     ;;; Emacs Load Path
     (setq load-path (cons "~/emacs" load-path))

   Incidentally, `load-library' is an interactive interface to the
`load' function.  The complete function looks like this:

     (defun load-library (library)
       "Load the library named LIBRARY.
     This is an interface to the function `load'."
       (interactive "sLoad library: ")
       (load library))

   The name of the function, `load-library', comes from the use of
`library' as a conventional synonym for `file'.  The source for the
`load-library' command is in the `files.el' library.

   Another interactive command that does a slightly different job is
`load-file'.  Note: Libraries of Lisp Code for Emacs,
 for information on the distinction between `load-library'
and this command.