bug#2811: closed by Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> (Re: bug#2811: 23.0.91; calendar)

[Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org>]

Peter Dyballa wrote:

> Am 03.04.2009 um 01:27 schrieb Glenn Morris:
>
>> Why don't you just use (setq calendar-holidays ...) as normal?
>
> I'm using them in the site init file. And additionally I want German  
> text.

I don't see the relevance of either of these facts. The recommended
way to do this is to use (setq calendar-holidays ...), whether in your
.emacs or site init file. Copying an entire lisp file and making
selective changes is never going to be the recommended method of doing
anything.

> This worked for almost 20 years now ... Actually it's only the
> "Daylight Saving Time Begins" and "Daylight Saving Time Ends" which
> don't translate.

I must misunderstand, because I can't see how what you describe would
ever work.

solar-holidays is an autoloaded defcustom (and was in Emacs 21.4 as
well). This means the definition is in loaddefs.el, and hence gets
dumped into the executable. Hence in `emacs -Q', solar-holidays is
already defined, with the original value.

If you then attempt to load a changed holidays.el, the second
defcustom has no effect on the previously defined value. You need to
use a setq.

(Personally, I wish these and other defcustoms were not autoloaded,
but people are used to them being so, so it's impossible to change.)