Re: Some developement questions

[hw <hw@adminart.net>]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> From: hw <hw@adminart.net>
>> Cc: spacibba@aol.com,  emacs-devel@gnu.org
>> Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2018 18:37:54 +0200
>> 
>> > IMO, that would be too radical, because in an init file each option
>> > already has a value.  So we will have to decide for the users whether
>> > or not they want certain options to have certain values.  That might
>> > work for boolean options, but many options in Emacs are non-boolean.
>> > As just one example, consider display-line-numbers-mode -- it has
>> > between 3 and 4 different styles, so which one would you put in the
>> > .emacs?
>> 
>> Use the values you would you put for the particular use case the file is
>> designed for.
>
> They all are.  The selection depends on user preferences and habits.
>
> [...]
>
>> They don´t need to do that.  You offer them to use one of the
>> configurations in the LaTeX group for working with LaTeX and to use one
>> of the configurations in the C++ group when writing C++ source code, and
>> so on.
>
> We already have that: each mode file includes options for that mode.
> What will we gain by having another file with those same options?

The gain would be that the user can pick between *sets* of settings,
guided by a description of what each set does.  He doesn't need to
concern himself with any particular setting to figure out if changing it
brings him closer to what he wants, and then experiment with the next
and the next and the next until he tried all the ones he could find.
That kind of learning can come later.

I think I see your point to assume that the defaults are good and to
present the user with the individual settings and to let him learn and
make his own decisions because everyone is too different to do anything
else.  That's great when the new user uses Emacs because he wants to
learn how to use it, and it might not be so good when he wants to use
Emacs to get some work done while the defaults happen not to be good for
him: Even better when he can simply switch to a set of settings that
helps him with his work without having to go through all the trial and
error otherwise needed to get there.

Does that make sense?