Re: Documentation for custom-file - is not (load custom-file) needed?

["Lennart Borgman" <lennart.borgman.073@student.lu.se>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Luc Teirlinck" <teirllm@dms.auburn.edu>


> Lennart Borgman wrote:
>
>    I think that custom-file should not be saved to "the custom file"
>    because of the problems we discussed before when renaming or
>    copying this file.
>
> If you rename the file, you will have to have to make some additional
> changes, whether you customized it through Custom or not.  Obviously,
> the easiest thing to do is not to rename the file.  I do not
> understand the problems when copying the file (to have a backup
> presumably).  I have done so several times.  Actually, I have
> backup-by-copying set to true, so my custom-files get copied every
> time a backup is made.  I never noticed a problem.
>
>    Is there any reason to save custom-file? Could it not just be
>    removed before the actual saving?
>
> If we would do that, it would be a lot better just to turn the
> defcustom into a defvar.

I have been hesitating to answer to this because of our long discussion. My
main points are:

1) Having "custom-file" saved to custom-set-variables means I can not copy
"custom file" to a new location or computer without editing it. Easy to
forget since it may be a bit unexpected that you save the file name into the
file. Saving a little bit of time for potentially many users is a good
thing. That is why I suggest that "custom-file" should not be saved to "the
custom file".

2) A GUI interface should be very helpful since most users will not try to
read much of the help texts when using it. I think Emacs "custom" is such an
interface. That is why I think the user should be noted clearly when (and
if) "custom-file" is not saved.

As you have pointed out earlier there are advantages with having something
like defcustom for changing "custom-file". However it is also clear that the
current defcustom is not really what we want. I think that the problems are
exactly at the point when "custom-file" is saved and this is probably what
we will discuss later. My suggestions are a workaround for the saving
problem.

Having said this I will try to shut up on this until after release.