From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Robert J. Chassell" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Customize buttons that change user's customfiles Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 15:07:38 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: References: <004a01c50ce6$4a5ce320$0200a8c0@sedrcw11488> Reply-To: bob@rattlesnake.com NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1107790072 28469 80.91.229.2 (7 Feb 2005 15:27:52 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 15:27:52 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Feb 07 16:27:52 2005 Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1CyAnf-0001DR-UW for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 07 Feb 2005 16:27:44 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1CyB1o-0003D6-Ob for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 07 Feb 2005 10:42:20 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1CyAqm-00075Y-Tl for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Feb 2005 10:30:58 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1CyAqX-0006xx-GT for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Feb 2005 10:30:42 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1CyAqW-0006u0-5f for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Feb 2005 10:30:40 -0500 Original-Received: from [69.168.108.225] (helo=rattlesnake.com) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1CyAUN-0007GP-El for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Feb 2005 10:07:47 -0500 Original-Received: by rattlesnake.com via sendmail from stdin id (Debian Smail3.2.0.115) Mon, 7 Feb 2005 15:07:38 +0000 (UTC) Original-To: emacs-devel@gnu.org In-reply-to: <004a01c50ce6$4a5ce320$0200a8c0@sedrcw11488> (lennart.borgman.073@student.lu.se) 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: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org X-MailScanner-To: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:33012 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:33012 In X Windows, when you move your mouse cursor over the button that says `Save for Future Sessions' the help documentation should not only say Make your editing in this buffer take effect for future Emacs sessions. as it does, but also say that This action automatically writes to your existing initialization file or creates a .emacs file if you lack one." Otherwise, novices may be confused where custom automatically writes and saves values. This change is a bug that should be fixed during this feature freeze. Other than discussion over the exact language to be used, this change only involves adding two lines to the `custom-buffer-create-internal' defun in emacs/lisp/cus-edit.el from :help-echo "\ Make your editing in this buffer take effect for future Emacs sessions." to :help-echo "\ Make your editing in this buffer take effect for future Emacs sessions. This action automatically writes to your existing initialization file or creates a .emacs file if you lack one." I used the phrase `existing initialization file' because some people specify a different name for their .emacs file than `.emacs'. However, the default for custom is to create a .emacs file automatically. More confusion: I just discovered another bug. I started an instance of Emacs with `emacs -Q' with a different user, one that lacked an existing initialization file. When I set an option with `M-x customize-option RET baud-rate RET' a new .emacs file was created, as expected and as Emacs should. However, I also received a message that said Saving settings from "emacs -q" would overwrite existing customizations But since I had no existing customization, this message was wrong! This is a bug that should be fixed before the release. As people keep observing, customize is a can of worms. The more we look, the more creepy, crawly things we see. Worse, we are not going fishing nor distributing them over a physical garden to improve it. I thought customize was a good idea once. I am not so sure now. -- Robert J. Chassell bob@rattlesnake.com GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8 http://www.rattlesnake.com http://www.teak.cc