Re: Customize buttons that change user'scustomfileshouldaskforconfirmation

["Robert J. Chassell" <bob@rattlesnake.com>]

Customize is a can of worms.  But the worms can improve the garden if
handled rightly!

As others feared years ago, I now fear that some will come to depend
on their .emacs file being written automatically by Customize.  They
will lose or not gain an understanding of the technology.  This
applies especially to people who are not programmers and who do not
wish to become programmers.

Customize should always show what it is automatically writing, just as
menu items always show key strokes, so anyone can become more expert
and more efficient if he or she wants.

This does not force anyone to learn anything, but it makes that
learning easy.  The person faces a low hill rather than a steep
mountain.

For a single value, 

    `Set for Current Session'

should show in the value window the humanly readable version of what
is set, such as

    (custom-set-variables
     ;; ...
     '(baud-rate 38400)
     ;; ... )

which takes a minimum of four lines.  (The current interface requires
one line, but does not show the complete expression.)  This need for
extra lines is a problem that I do not think we can avoid.

The commentary should say, as it does now,

    you have set this option, but not saved it for future sessions.


For future sessions, for a single value, we should replace `Save for
Future Sessions' with the more accurate statement

    `Set and Save', 

write the four line expression in the value window, and say in the
commentary

    you have set this option and saved it in your initialization file

So you would see in your  *Customize Face: bold*  buffer

    (custom-set-faces
     ;; ...
     '(bold ((t (:background "DodgerBlue4" :foreground "PaleGreen"))))
     ;; ... )

and the same expression, with the other custimized faces, too, in your
.emacs file.

As for `All': when using the automatic writing feature for
customization, that only makes sense as both a set and a save.
Otherwise, novices might inadvertently come to think that you need to
start a new instance of Emacs to gain new customizations.

-- 
    Robert J. Chassell                         
    bob@rattlesnake.com                         GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
    http://www.rattlesnake.com                  http://www.teak.cc