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* Re: emacs/lisp ChangeLog
       [not found] <E1LibJT-0006kV-MS@cvs.savannah.gnu.org>
@ 2009-03-16 16:53 ` Leo
  2009-03-16 18:23   ` Chong Yidong
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread
From: Leo @ 2009-03-16 16:53 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Glenn Morris; +Cc: emacs-devel

Hi Glenn,

On 2009-03-14 21:22 +0000, Glenn Morris wrote on emacs-diffs@gnu.org:
>  2009-03-14  Glenn Morris  <rgm@gnu.org>
>  
> +	* mail/mailalias.el: Remove leading `*' from defcustom docs.

It seems many files still have leading * in their defcustoms. For
example, have a peek at the nxml directory.

BTW, I am curious about the leading *, what does it do? Why so many old
packages are using it?

Would it be a good idea to clarify this in (info "(elisp)Programming
Tips") and also in NEWS? 

-- 
.:  Leo  :.  [ sdl.web AT gmail.com ]  .: I use Emacs :.

               www.git-scm.com
    git - the one true version control system




^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread

* Re: emacs/lisp ChangeLog
  2009-03-16 16:53 ` emacs/lisp ChangeLog Leo
@ 2009-03-16 18:23   ` Chong Yidong
  2009-03-16 19:17     ` Stefan Monnier
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread
From: Chong Yidong @ 2009-03-16 18:23 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Leo; +Cc: emacs-devel

Leo <sdl.web@gmail.com> writes:

> BTW, I am curious about the leading *, what does it do? Why so many old
> packages are using it?

It was used to mark a variable as a user option.  This is obsolete;
nowadays people should just use defcustom.




^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread

* Re: emacs/lisp ChangeLog
  2009-03-16 18:23   ` Chong Yidong
@ 2009-03-16 19:17     ` Stefan Monnier
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: Stefan Monnier @ 2009-03-16 19:17 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Chong Yidong; +Cc: Leo, emacs-devel

>> It seems many files still have leading * in their defcustoms. For
>> example, have a peek at the nxml directory.

No big deal.  They're pretty harmless anyway.

>> BTW, I am curious about the leading *, what does it do? Why so many old
>> packages are using it?
> It was used to mark a variable as a user option.

More specifically it was used to tell M-x set-variable that it could
operate on it.

> This is obsolete; nowadays people should just use defcustom.

Nowadays, set-variable automatically considers all defcustom'd variables
as being acceptable, so the * is redundant for them.


        Stefan





^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread

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Thread overview: 3+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
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     [not found] <E1LibJT-0006kV-MS@cvs.savannah.gnu.org>
2009-03-16 16:53 ` emacs/lisp ChangeLog Leo
2009-03-16 18:23   ` Chong Yidong
2009-03-16 19:17     ` Stefan Monnier

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