Re: [ELPA] New package: dict

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Eshel Yaron <me@eshelyaron.com>
> Cc: philipk@posteo.net,  emacs-devel@gnu.org
> Date: Thu, 18 May 2023 18:51:01 +0300
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> >> I agree setting three options may be a bit much for casual users, but
> >> note that in order to display word definitions in *Help* you only need
> >> to customize the last option, `dictionary-display-definition-function`.
> >> The other two only affect the interactive word and dictionary selection
> >> (mostly adding completion), so I'm not sure it's necessary to couple
> >> them with how the definition ends up being presented.
> >
> > Then why did you add the other options?
> 
> I've added these options in the patch because I want to have minibuffer
> completions in `dictionary-search`'s prompts, similarly to
> `dict-describe-word`.  That's also why I mentioned all three
> customizations in my earlier message: to show how to obtain the behavior
> of `dict-describe-word` in dictionary.el using the new user options.
> 
> But from the perspective of other dictionary.el users, it may be useful
> to customize each of the options but not the necessarily all of them.
> That's why I implemented them as separate user options.  Makes sense?

AFAIR, this started from you proposing a package that would behave as
if all 3 options were customized, and saying that you like this
alternative behavior much better, so much so that you felt a new
package is in order.  So I'm asking why not let users who, like you,
will like that much better, to get that behavior, with all its bells
and whistles, by setting just one option?  Wouldn't you personally
like such an option and use it all the time?