Re: Getting more info on a variable in Customize buffers

[Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk>]

Luc Teirlinck <teirllm@dms.auburn.edu> writes:

> If you set, say, auto-revert-interval, which is 5 by default, to 10
> and save for future sessions, then set it to 20 for this session
> only, "show initial Lisp expression" will show 10, not 5.

If the standard value is 5, the saved value is 10, and the current
value is 20, then "the *unevaluated* expression that is used to
initialize the variable at start-up" is 10.

The "defcustom" form will use the saved value for initialization over
the standard value, provided that a saved value exists.

I guess the name "custom-set-variables" was a mistake.  It makes
people think of it as a command (like setq), rather than a
declaration.  It does not (in the prototypical case) set any
variables, it just mark what their saved value are for use when the
appropriate defcustom is evaluated.  

It should have been called "custom-saved-variables", that would have
avoided a lot of confusion.