Re: Emacs FAQ for Emacs 22.1

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

"Richard M. Stallman" <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>     If `M-x customize-variable' is the preferred method then probably we
>     should replace things like
>
>      Place the following Lisp form in your `.emacs' file:
>
> 	 (setq scroll-step 1)
>
>     with
>
>      Use M-x customize-variable to set scroll-step to 1
>
> I am not sure.  Perhaps either way is ok, or it may depend
> on the context.

While it depends in some manner on the context (the latter alternative
is certainly not helpful when talking about Lisp data structures and
programming practices), I think that with regard to .emacs forms, we
should generally prefer advertising Custom.  It saves us from dealing
with trouble from people who have in good faith used the wrong
set-form on some variable (when does one need to use setq-default?),
and who have, because of a lack of acquaintance with Lisp data
structures, used the wrong or illegal sexp on the right hand side of
stuff.

People who use setq should be comfortable with reading and
interpreting the documentation of variables.

So I think that in the Emacs manual, we should generally focus on
using customize.  There is nothing wrong with a chapter "how to
achieve things with Lisp in your .emacs by hand" or so (cars come with
service manuals, too), but for the general practice, I'd strongly
suggest we recommend using the knobs and dials provided for the user
where available instead of recommending fiddling with the engine
yourself.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum