bug#57003: 28.1.90; Can local variables be loaded before loading major mode?

[Ihor Radchenko <yantar92@gmail.com>]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> Is the problem here that there are defvars in the major-mode file being
> loaded that depend on one another?  (I'm not sure I understand the
> explanation in that bug report.)

No.

Let me try to explain a simple case when setting variables before/after
loading Org mode matters.

We have a variable org-startup-folded:

   Non-nil means entering Org mode will switch to OVERVIEW.

This variable controls the initial state of the Org buffer.
When, non-nil, headings will be folded at the end of Org initialization.
This folding happens inside org-mode specification and hence setting the
variable after Org mode is loaded makes no difference.

There are also less trivial cases like some variables controlling Org
parser. For example, we have org-todo-keywords. Its value controls how
the headlines are parsed. Because Org parser is initialized during Org
loading, setting this variable after loading Org mode can be simply
disastrous.

Best,
Ihor