From: Emanuel Berg <moasen@zoho.com>
To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Using "Emacs Configure" **and** modifying .emacs
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2017 22:16:49 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <868tin1avi.fsf@zoho.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 877ey8k8c0.fsf@ankarstrom.se
John Ankarström wrote:
> I don't think it's good to teach newcomers
> that `setq' is better, because many user
> options depend on custom setters that aren't
> fired by a simple `setq'. Customize is more
> portable and works with everything.
If I'm allowed to deliberately misunderstand,
nothing is more portable than the Lisp REPL,
which is why there are so many dialects of
Lisp :)
I don't think Customize should be recommended
for newcomers, as it is so frustrating and
unpleasant to deal with, to the point they
might never return for a second Emacs session,
thinking the whole software is like that.
>> (IMO, *no one* should use Customize, an even
>> better way to keep Customize away from their
>> init files.)
>
> I'll agree that the interface of Customize is
> a bit clunky, but it's a good way to learn
> what values are available for each option.
This aspect is confusing at best. Because it
should be apparent from the context if for
example the value associated with a variable
should be for example a string or an integer.
And step two should be even less a concern,
because all strings and digits should be valid!
(Not all strings or digits need to be
practical, of course. But people understand
this. They don't assign crazy values.)
So I never had any problem whatsoever with
"what values are available"!
If it (the variable) should take on a data
structure to be processed, that needs to be in
a specific form to work - say, a list of lists,
this should be explained and exemplified in the
docstring. Again, no problems!
For example, with `nnmail-split-methods', the
docstring says:
Incoming mail will be split according to
this variable.
If you'd like, for instance, one mail group
for mail from the "4ad-l" mailing list, one
group for junk mail and one for everything
else, you could do something like this:
(setq nnmail-split-methods
'(("mail.4ad" "From:.*4ad")
("mail.junk" "From:.*Lars\\|Subject:.*buy")
("mail.misc" "")))
As you can see, this variable is a list of
lists, where the first element in each
"rule" is the name of the group (which, by
the way, does not have to be called
anything beginning with "mail", "yonka.zow"
is a fine, fine name), and the second is
a regexp that nnmail will try to match on
the header to find a fit.
The second element can also be a function.
In that case, it will be called narrowed to
the headers with the first element of the
rule as the argument. It should return
a non-nil value if it thinks that the mail
belongs in that group.
The last element should always have "" as
the regexp.
This variable can also have a function as
its value, and it can also have a fancy
split method as its value.
See `nnmail-split-fancy' for an explanation
of that syntax.
You can customize this variable.
--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2017-08-13 20:16 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 67+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2017-08-10 13:51 Using "Emacs Configure" **and** modifying .emacs Ronald Fischer
2017-08-10 15:59 ` Drew Adams
2017-08-10 16:58 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-12 17:24 ` John Ankarström
2017-08-13 20:16 ` Emanuel Berg [this message]
2017-08-12 17:32 ` John Ankarström
2017-08-10 16:00 ` Óscar Fuentes
2017-08-10 16:56 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-11 7:21 ` Ronald Fischer
2017-08-11 13:51 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-11 14:11 ` Tomas Nordin
[not found] ` <mailman.12937.1502460691.21957.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2017-08-11 15:20 ` notbob
2017-08-11 15:31 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-11 16:54 ` Drew Adams
2017-08-11 19:07 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-11 19:15 ` Drew Adams
2017-08-12 15:53 ` ken
2017-08-12 16:11 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-12 16:24 ` ken
2017-08-13 20:19 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.12941.1502465490.21957.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2017-08-11 15:57 ` notbob
2017-08-11 16:37 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.12935.1502459723.21957.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2017-08-11 14:09 ` HASM
2017-08-11 15:20 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.12940.1502464872.21957.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2017-08-11 18:55 ` Alan Mackenzie
2017-08-11 20:08 ` HASM
2017-08-11 20:29 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-11 20:46 ` Drew Adams
2017-08-11 22:12 ` (1) defcustom :set, (2) similar for defvar Drew Adams
2017-08-12 0:15 ` Using "Emacs Configure" **and** modifying .emacs Emanuel Berg
2017-08-12 7:30 ` tomas
2017-08-12 7:43 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-12 8:02 ` tomas
2017-08-12 10:03 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-12 10:38 ` Tomas Nordin
2017-08-12 11:38 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-15 22:10 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-15 22:18 ` Drew Adams
2017-08-15 22:27 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-15 23:38 ` Drew Adams
2017-08-16 0:09 ` John Mastro
2017-08-16 0:37 ` Robert Thorpe
2017-08-16 1:20 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-16 0:09 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-15 22:25 ` John Mastro
2017-08-15 22:41 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-15 23:09 ` Drew Adams
2017-08-16 0:07 ` John Mastro
2017-08-16 0:13 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-12 12:50 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-12 16:04 ` Drew Adams
2017-08-12 16:20 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-12 16:04 ` Drew Adams
2017-08-12 0:32 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-14 16:33 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-14 18:15 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-14 21:41 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-14 23:17 ` John Mastro
2017-08-15 0:24 ` Emanuel Berg
2017-08-15 2:20 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.12888.1502380810.21957.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2017-08-10 17:47 ` Dan Espen
2017-08-10 18:06 ` Drew Adams
2017-08-10 18:10 ` Drew Adams
[not found] ` <mailman.12897.1502388423.21957.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2017-08-10 19:08 ` Dan Espen
2017-08-10 19:14 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.12899.1502392471.21957.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2017-08-11 12:03 ` Dan Espen
2017-08-11 13:46 ` Emanuel Berg
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