Re: Emacs FAQ for Emacs 22.1

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Luc Teirlinck <teirllm@dms.auburn.edu> writes:

> Alexander Klimov wrote:
>
>    If `M-x customize-variable' is the preferred method
>
> Did we ever decide that?  I believe to remember that we decided
> instead that use of Custom was completely optional.

Where is the contradiction?  That you are able to forego Custom does
not mean it isn't the preferred method.

It is _strongly_ preferred since it leads to variables getting
consistent values (unwitting users just love to confuse different
quotes, don't consider lists of strings and a single string different,
omit quotes where they are necessary and so on).  While we decided not
to introduce any changes that would render it impossible to set
variables without Custom, there is little point in documenting other
ways in the manuals.  People who want to access variables at the Lisp
level will just have to deal with Elisp and doc strings.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum