From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Tim X Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: xdisaster Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 19:12:52 +1000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: <87slb3wc8b.fsf@lion.rapttech.com.au> References: <87y7kyx7hu.fsf@lion.rapttech.com.au> <87d529xioa.fsf@lion.rapttech.com.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1176543394 13204 80.91.229.12 (14 Apr 2007 09:36:34 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 09:36:34 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Apr 14 11:36:28 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1HcegF-000747-AI for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 14 Apr 2007 11:36:27 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Hcekb-0005XY-Rx for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 14 Apr 2007 05:40:57 -0400 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newshub.stanford.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!ucberkeley!sn-xt-sjc-02!sn-xt-sjc-01!sn-post-sjc-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.0.95 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:WyKjke1qE4FXnXYGLgozt9W6qqA= Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Original-Lines: 47 Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:147060 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:42664 Archived-At: Sean Sieger writes: > Tim X writes: > > (though I'd highly recommend using the customize interface). > > Why is that? > > That bit of code bugs me at the bottom of my .emacs; maybe that's > because I don't know elisp, so that the little I write, I want to be > handwritten--`all mine'. > A couple of reasons. There are/can be situations where just a simple (setq ....) doesn't work as you would expect. The customize interface can be setup so that setting a value through that interface actually causes specific elisp functions to execute that correctly set things or change things in a consistent manner. I've also had situations where for some reason, (setq doesn't work and the default value still takes precedence. However, as soon as I set it through customize, it works as expected. Using customize is quick, avoids silly errors that take time to debug and allows me to spend time on more rewarding activities. It also has the advantage of presenting all the user customizable aspects of a package in a convenient and consistent manner. Most of the time, I can start some new mode/package I'm not familiar with and when I see it doesn't do something the way I'd like it to, I simply do a M-x customize package and all the ways I can modify the behavior are there in front of me. I don't have to go through manuals or code listings to try and work out how I can change things. Instead of spending hours working out how to do something like change an indent style for a programming mode or stop some feature from using its own frame etc, I just follow the options presented by customize. I don't need to know if the setting is a symbol, a boolean, a sequence, etc. This is possibly just a personal matter of taste, but I prefer to actually put any elisp writing towards new functionality rather than just simply setting some default values to customize behavior. For me, writing basic setq statements and simple lambdas for load hooks etc is far less rewarding than trying to write something completely new using elisp. Tim -- tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au