From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Drew Adams" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: library-specific customization files? Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2004 11:50:06 -0700 Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1099162257 21321 80.91.229.6 (30 Oct 2004 18:50:57 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2004 18:50:57 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Oct 30 20:50:41 2004 Return-path: Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1CNyJF-0001iO-00 for ; Sat, 30 Oct 2004 20:50:41 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.33) id 1CNyR9-0007y8-Sz for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 30 Oct 2004 14:58:51 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.33) id 1CNyR3-0007y3-U7 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 30 Oct 2004 14:58:46 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.33) id 1CNyR3-0007xr-H0 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 30 Oct 2004 14:58:45 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.33) id 1CNyR3-0007xo-Ef for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 30 Oct 2004 14:58:45 -0400 Original-Received: from [141.146.126.231] (helo=agminet04.oracle.com) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (TLSv1:DES-CBC3-SHA:168) (Exim 4.34) id 1CNyIl-0001jF-Kt for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 30 Oct 2004 14:50:11 -0400 Original-Received: from rgmgw3.us.oracle.com (rgmgw3.us.oracle.com [138.1.191.12]) by agminet04.oracle.com (Switch-3.1.4/Switch-3.1.0) with ESMTP id i9UIoA3R032453 for ; Sat, 30 Oct 2004 11:50:10 -0700 Original-Received: from rgmgw3.us.oracle.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by rgmgw3.us.oracle.com (Switch-3.1.4/Switch-3.1.0) with ESMTP id i9UIo9UQ006435 for ; Sat, 30 Oct 2004 12:50:09 -0600 Original-Received: from dradamslap (dhcp-amer-csvpn-gw1-141-144-65-120.vpn.oracle.com [141.144.65.120]) by rgmgw3.us.oracle.com (Switch-3.1.4/Switch-3.1.0) with SMTP id i9UIo9XR006420 for ; Sat, 30 Oct 2004 12:50:09 -0600 Original-To: "Emacs-Devel" X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1441 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:29185 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:29185 If this is not the right list for this, please point me to the right one. If this is the right list, and I've misunderstood or missed something basic, please correct me - I'm not very used to using customize. (This is for after the release, BTW.) 1. First, I don't see `custom-file' mentioned in the Emacs (Info) manual, but perhaps my version of the manual is not up to date. 2. When you save settings made through customize, they are saved in `custom-file' or `user-init-file' (if `custom-file' is nil). I don't see any other option for saving customizations. Is this correct? 3. Saving all customizations in the same file can lead to a loss of structure - a user can end up with a huge, unordered `custom-file' or `user-init-file'. This is the usual case, I think. 4. It would be good for a user to be able to (optionally) save customizations to separate files that he can easily associate with their corresponding standard library files. For instance, ps-print customizations might be saved to custom-ps-print.el, while dired customizations might be saved to custom-dired.el. All of these user customizations could be placed in the same directory. They could all be loaded by default. 5. We might also consider automatically creating a single byte-compiled version of the collection of custom-*.el files (rather than multiple compiled files - to save load time). I think that multiple customization files, each associated with a standard library file, could make it easier for users to keep track of things, and easier for them to adapt to new Emacs versions. Making this optional would be important, because for some users this might be more confusing than helpful. Any interest in doing something along these lines (letting users structure customizations to reflect standard-library structure)? Has this been discussed before? Other ideas on how to achieve this? - Drew P.S. To be honest, this is essentially what I do now by hand, anyway: I have a custom file per library file, where I keep my customizations (not necessarily created by "customize"). I'm a bit loathe to use customize itself sometimes, because I want to be able to keep on top of what is modified where. This may not be the best way to go about things - suggestions welcome.