Re: show-buffer-local-variables

[Juri Linkov <juri@jurta.org>]

>     I noticed this entry in emacs/etc/TODO:
>
>     ** Add a command to make a local variables list in the current buffer
>     and/or add a variable to the list.
>
>     I recently wrote a function that does the former, if I understand the
>     entry correctly.
>
> No, it is a misunderstanding.  A local variables list is text
> at the end of the file.

It seems this command should do the same thing as currently `dcl-save-option'
and `dcl-save-all-options' from emacs/lisp/progmodes/dcl-mode.el do,
but more generally.

These commands make a Local Variables section with prefix/suffix strings
extracted from `comment-start' and `comment-end'.  But the result is not
always nice.  For example, in Emacs-Lisp mode the value of `comment-start'
is ";", but a nicer prefix would be ";;" or ";;;".  Perhaps some modes
should override this value with a new variable like `local-variables-prefix'.

Also the local variables list for `dcl-save-all-options' is not general.
A better choice is a list like used by desktop.el to save the values of
local variables in the desktop file, i.e. the option `desktop-locals-to-save'.

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