Setting default-directory in .emacs

Question

I don't really know what to say.

I've been working on customizing my emacs, and I noticed that it isn't actually loading my .emacs on startup. According the(http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Find-Init.html#Find-Init), emacs looks in the HOME directory (~/) for the initialization file first...

When I start emacs, my .emacs file seems to be read correctly - when I visit a .notes file, for example, the hooks are evaluated and such and such. What surprises me: the default-directory isn't set - a command in the same load file. I can either evaluate it manually or simply execute (load "~/.emacs") and it will work fine.

I guess the question can be summarized: If the load command works as expected when executed manually, why isn't it working on startup automatically?

Full (except for commented-out functions) .emacs file:

; http://stackoverflow.com/a/13946304/1443496
(defvar auto-minor-mode-alist ()
  "Alist of filename patterns vs correpsonding minor mode functions,
   see `auto-mode-alist'. All elements of this alist are checked,
   meaning you can enable multiple minor modes for the same regexp.")

(defun enable-minor-mode-based-on-extension ()
  "check file name against auto-minor-mode-alist to enable minor modes
the checking happens for all pairs in auto-minor-mode-alist"
  (when buffer-file-name
    (let ((name buffer-file-name)
          (remote-id (file-remote-p buffer-file-name))
          (alist auto-minor-mode-alist))
      ;; Remove backup-suffixes from file name.
      (setq name (file-name-sans-versions name))
      ;; Remove remote file name identification.
      (when (and (stringp remote-id)
                 (string-match-p (regexp-quote remote-id) name))
        (setq name (substring name (match-end 0))))
      (while (and alist (caar alist) (cdar alist))
        (if (string-match (caar alist) name)
            (funcall (cdar alist) 1))
        (setq alist (cdr alist))))))

(add-hook 'find-file-hook 'enable-minor-mode-based-on-extension)


;; the wrapping up of the two loads make sure 
;; auctex is loaded only when editing tex files. 
(eval-after-load "tex-mode" 
  '(progn
     (load "auctex.el"  nil nil t)
     (load "preview-latex.el" nil nil t)
     )
  )

; Sets my default directory to my dropbox (platform-dependent)
(setq default-directory
      (concat
       (if (eq system-type 'windows-nt)
       "t:" "~")
       "/Dropbox/Public/School/TeX/"))


; Set up the .notes extension
(setq auto-mode-alist
      (cons '("\\.notes\\'" . text-mode)
        auto-mode-alist))
(setq auto-minor-mode-alist
      (cons '("\\.notes\\'" . auto-fill-mode)
            auto-minor-mode-alist))


;; AUCTeX replaces latex-mode-hook with LaTeX-mode-hook
(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook
      (lambda ()
        (setq TeX-auto-save t)
        (setq TeX-parse-self t)
        ;; (setq-default TeX-master nil)
        (reftex-mode t)
        (TeX-fold-mode t)))

Answer 1

Default-directory is buffer local. Your .emacs is loading just fine; the value of default-directory is (re)set for each new buffer you open. When you re-load your .emacs, it changes the value of default-directory for the buffer you are in only.