Re: Documentation not clear for the Lisp function set-variable

[Juri Linkov <juri@jurta.org>]

>> I do not know whether or not it is important for `set-variable' to be
>> consistent with that.  Maybe not.  I just wanted to be sure that you
>> are aware of the `customize' situation.
>
> AFAICS, customize-face does nothing special, other than filtering out
> aliases (but accepts them if the user types them). The set-variable
> situation is very different: it does not accept a variable name unless
> it thinks it is a user-variable, so the easiest answer is just making
> it believe that aliases of user-variables are also user-variables.
> This will generate more answers in the completion list; I'm not sure
> whether that is a problem or not (I tend to think that it is not, as
> the list is pruned quite quickly as the user types in characters).

Maybe set-variable should first try to complete non-obsolete aliases,
and filter out obsolete aliases (but still accept them).  The distinction
between obsolete variables and aliases is essential.  Users should not
see obsolete variables by default, but should be able to use them
(with possible notification about their obsoleteness).  Aliases are
valid names just like the variable names they refer to.

Also it makes sense to introduce a new property byte-obsolete-face
to mark obsolete faces, so completion would work similarly for 
customize-face.

-- 
Juri Linkov
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/