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From: "Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>
To: "Emacs-Devel" <emacs-devel@gnu.org>
Subject: always put Customizations in `custom-file', never in `user-init-file'
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 11:02:19 -0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <DHEEKFAFJEFOJHLCFPFDKELJCCAA.drew.adams@oracle.com> (raw)

Having customizations go into `custom-file' has a great advantage over
having them stuck in `user-init-file' (.emacs): The entire `custom-file' is
generally not intended to be edited by a user, whereas `user-init-file' is
specifically intended to be edited.

I think it was probably a mistake ever to have put Customize customizations
into a file intended for editing. That can confuse users, and it's just
asking for trouble. Now that we have a good alternative (`custom-file'), I
think that should be used exclusively.

nil should then not be allowed as the value of `custom-file'. The default
value could be something like `~/.emacs-custom-file'.

You might say that this would be too disruptive, because many people already
have Customizations in `user-init-file'.

To handle that, Emacs would move any existing Customizations from
`user-init-file' to `custom-file' (replacing them at that place by a load of
`custom-file'). This would be done when `user-init-file' is loaded if
Customizations are encountered there. The user would be informed when this
happens. Customize could even be opened to `custom-file' at that time, to
let the user specify the `custom-file' to use.

A user would not be able to set `custom-file' to the value of
`user-init-file' or vice versa: an error would be raised whenever either is
attempted.

WDOT?

             reply	other threads:[~2007-12-10 19:02 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 44+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2007-12-10 19:02 Drew Adams [this message]
2007-12-10 19:21 ` always put Customizations in `custom-file', never in `user-init-file' Eric Hanchrow
2007-12-10 20:30 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2007-12-10 21:19   ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2007-12-10 21:25     ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2007-12-10 22:12       ` Drew Adams
2007-12-10 22:35         ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2007-12-10 23:09           ` Drew Adams
2007-12-10 23:19             ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2007-12-10 23:44               ` Drew Adams
2007-12-11  0:05                 ` Jason Rumney
2007-12-11  0:16                 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2007-12-10 22:56       ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2007-12-10 23:06         ` David Kastrup
2007-12-11  0:07           ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2007-12-10 23:08         ` Drew Adams
2007-12-11  0:31           ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2007-12-10 22:08     ` Drew Adams
2007-12-10 23:45       ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2007-12-11  0:14         ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2007-12-11  1:04           ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2007-12-11  6:05           ` Drew Adams
2007-12-11  0:47         ` Drew Adams
2007-12-11  2:20           ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2007-12-11  6:15             ` Drew Adams
2007-12-11  9:53               ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2007-12-11 16:57                 ` Drew Adams
2007-12-12 10:00                   ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2007-12-12 16:31                     ` Drew Adams
2007-12-11 19:01           ` Richard Stallman
2007-12-11 19:12             ` Drew Adams
2007-12-10 21:58   ` Drew Adams
2007-12-11  4:00     ` Stefan Monnier
2007-12-11  6:04       ` Drew Adams
2007-12-11 14:52         ` Stefan Monnier
2007-12-11 16:58           ` Drew Adams
2007-12-11 22:12             ` David Kastrup
2007-12-10 22:07 ` Jason Rumney
2007-12-10 23:08   ` Drew Adams
2007-12-11  3:02 ` Robert J. Chassell
2007-12-11  6:06   ` Drew Adams
2007-12-11 11:39     ` Robert J. Chassell
2007-12-11 16:58       ` Drew Adams
2007-12-11 19:00 ` Richard Stallman

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