Re: Options menu

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

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

> Lennart Borgman wrote:
>
>    3) Choose menu "Save Options".
>
>    What happens on your computer? On my computer debug-on-error is
>    saved as far as I can see.
>
> If I understood the code in menu-bar.el correctly (I did not try out
> anything), then an oversimplified description of the situation if you
> choose "Save Options" is:
>
> 1.  The following options get saved if their value was set
>     either through the menu bar _or_ through Custom.:
>
> scroll-bar-mode debug-on-quit debug-on-error menu-bar-mode
> tool-bar-mode save-place uniquify-buffer-name-style fringe-mode
> fringe-indicators case-fold-search display-time-mode
> auto-compression-mode current-language-environment
> default-input-method text-mode-hook.
>
> In as far as text-mode-hook is concerned, the entire current value
> of text-mode hook gets saved, not just the part mentioned in the
> Options Menu.  This could easily be inappropriate.  All one can do
> is hope for the better.
>
> 2.  The following options get saved to the custom-set-variables form,
>     no matter how they got their value:
>
> line-number-mode column-number-mode cua-mode show-paren-mode
> transient-mark-mode global-font-lock-mode blink-cursor-mode
>
> 3.  Other options never get saved.
>
> I believe that we might have to clean this situation up after the
> release, as part of making changes and bug fixes to Custom.

Well, that assessment of the situation certainly sounds like
qualifying for the "bug fixes" department even before the release, and
I don't think it can be considered adequately addressed in
release-quality merely by having the "Save Options" menu entry appear
above the "Customize Emacs" submenu.

As I mentioned before, I think the sanest way would be to have "Save
Options" prompt "Options have been set by Customize.  Save them too?"
in case that options outside of the list have been changed from their
default values in this session using Customize without saving.  (Do we
have a handle on whether they were touched by Customize itself?
Perhaps we should.) That would avoid ugly surprises to the user so
that we don't need to have an obscure menu order catering for that,
and it would lower the problem to a level where we can afford thinking
about the rest of the problem after the release.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum