Re: customize-set-(value|variable) [was: apropos commands for commands, user options, all functions, all variables]

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

    1. Rename `customize-set-value' to `set-option', and
    `customize-set-variable' to `set-option-default' (or add aliases). Users
    will find these names easier.

We don't currently suggest to users that they use those commands,
so making them easier to use does not seem like an important goal.

However, I agree that it is hard to remember which is which, so maybe
we should rename `customize-set-variable' to `customize-set-default'.

We could consider the suggestion that we start inviting users to use
those commands (in which case renaming them would be desirable), but
that is a different question.

    These commands provide much better interaction
    for reading the new value than does the current `set-variable'.

It doesn't seem to work very well at all.

I tried it with `case-fold-search' and it asked a y-or-n question.  I
can guess that the two answers correspond to the values t and nil, but
that wasn't clear.

I tried it with `yank-excluded-properties', and it displayed a garbled
prompt, which started with `[repeat] [choice]'.

If those bugs were fixed, would it be better or worse than
`set-variable'?  I am not sure.

    2. Rewrite `set-variable' to set any variable, not just an option,

If a bunch of people want it, ok.

								       and when
    the variable is an option then have the code do what `customize-set-value'
    does. That is, provide better value input interaction, when possible.

As I said above, I am not sure that is an improvement (and at present
it doesn't really work).

    3. `customize-set-(value|variable)' needs some improvement. Here are some
    things I notice:

I see you also ran into bugs in it.

Would someone like to fix them.