Re: bug#16026: Connection specific settings and proxies

[Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>]

On Sun, 12 Feb 2017 18:42:17 +0100 Michael Albinus <michael.albinus@gmx.de> wrote: 

MA> Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:
MA> Your proposal looks OK to me. U, Y and Z shall be regexps, X a symbol
MA> (or also a regexp?). All of them shall be optional.
>> 
>> Wonderful. I propose that the application should be a defgroup symbol,
>> and every connection profile should be required to have a defgroup.
>> 
>> That would give us an implicit connection profile hierarchy and a place
>> to hook connection profile customizations at the UI level.
>> 
>> So defining connection profiles would be something like this:
>> 
>> (add-connection-profiles :user U :defgroup X :protocol Y :machine Z
>> :profile 'UXYZ :vars '(...))
>> 
>> (add-connection-profiles :profile 'general :vars '(...))

MA> Well, I'm a little bit lost. What does the defgroup here? I understand
MA> that replaces what you have called initially an application, but I don't
MA> see what defcustoms shall be placed now under the defgroup
MA> hierarchy. Could you pls give an example?

It's just a categorization. It would simply be the defgroup of an
existing application. That way you don't have to invent a new symbol for
every application that wants to use a connection profile and has the
defgroup declared already. For example, 'gnus for Gnus. So in `M-x
customize-group Gnus' you would maybe see an extra button to list and
modify the Gnus-specific connection profiles.

Connection profiles without a defgroup (application) symbol belong to
all applications.

MA> I also know that there are users reluctant to the customization
MA> machinery. Wouldn't we loose them?

Customize wouldn't be required. It's just an easy way to connect the
profile with other application-specific customizations, but users should
be able to add or modify profiles directly.

Does that make sense?

Ted