From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: doc elisp intro cross reference fixes Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 18:15:07 -0500 Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: References: <87wua28zux.fsf@zip.com.au> <87ad6vdsxi.fsf@mail.jurta.org> <200311190418.hAJ4ITC02466@raven.dms.auburn.edu> <200311190528.hAJ5SrK02553@raven.dms.auburn.edu> <3FBBD155.2050703@yahoo.com> <200311192238.hAJMcTM06424@raven.dms.auburn.edu> <3FBD2533.6090503@yahoo.com> <200311262349.hAQNn2l02786@raven.dms.auburn.edu> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1070062380 29749 80.91.224.253 (28 Nov 2003 23:33:00 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 23:33:00 +0000 (UTC) Cc: monnier@IRO.UMontreal.CA, emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Sat Nov 29 00:32:57 2003 Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1APs6b-0007o9-00 for ; Sat, 29 Nov 2003 00:32:57 +0100 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1APs6b-00041c-00 for ; Sat, 29 Nov 2003 00:32:57 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1APt40-0004Pa-2A for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Fri, 28 Nov 2003 19:34:20 -0500 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.24) id 1APswM-00029m-06 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 28 Nov 2003 19:26:26 -0500 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.24) id 1APsvn-0001wo-Id for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 28 Nov 2003 19:26:22 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.164] (helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1APsvm-0001wT-RE for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 28 Nov 2003 19:25:50 -0500 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.24) id 1APrpL-0004E7-IP; Fri, 28 Nov 2003 18:15:07 -0500 Original-To: Luc Teirlinck In-reply-to: <200311262349.hAQNn2l02786@raven.dms.auburn.edu> (message from Luc Teirlinck on Wed, 26 Nov 2003 17:49:02 -0600 (CST)) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2 Precedence: list List-Id: Emacs development discussions. List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:18199 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:18199 Indeed: (defalias 'set-variable 'customize-set-variable) Note that if you mean this literally, this is a non-trivial change in as far as prefix arguments are concerned. Right now, C-u set-variable will set the buffer-local value. Yes, we would want to add a similar C-u feature to customize-set-variable before doing this. Indeed. We'd just need to make (defvar a b "*c") equivalent to (defcustom a b "c"). You make this sound a lot simpler than it would be. This will have to be handled individually and very carefully for each *-defvar, a huge amount of work. In the long run, we want to do that huge amount of work. All of these variables should have appropriate custom types. That is already on the agenda of work that should be done. However, in the short run, we don't have to do this immediately. It is certainly possible to handle all defvars with * using a default custom type that allows all Lisp objects as values. That loses nothing compared with the way things are now. If an author decided to use a *-defvar instead of a defcustom, there probably is a good reason why he decided not to use a defcustom. I think the most common reason would be that the Lisp package is old. For instance, default-enable-multibyte-characters has a *-defvar. You do not want to turn this into a defcustom, because it would duplicate the defcustom for enable-multibyte-characters, which also sets the default value. That would be extremely confusing to the Custom user. We could do something special for cases like these.