Re: Why didn't setq work here?

[Eric Lilja <mindcooler@gmail.com>]

On 2011-01-07 15:26, Tassilo Horn wrote:
> Eric Lilja<mindcooler@gmail.com>  writes:
>
>> I have one final question though. fill-column does seem to be a
>> variable.
>
> It is.
>
>> It can be described using C-h v and set using M-x
>> set-variable. However, if I replace (set-fill-column 76) with (setq
>> fill-column 76) the variable value is never changed (and no byte
>> compiler warning btw).
>
> I presume, your observation is false.  In fact, `set-fill-column' does
> nothing except reading its argument and then doing (setq fill-column
> arg) itself.
>
> Bye,
> Tassilo
>
>
>

Thanks for your reply Mr Horn. Either my mind is playing tricks on me or 
there is some stochastic error here which makes setq sometimes not 
stick. I tried it ten times in a row and one time it claimed fill-column 
was at the default value. Anyway, I documented my .emacs like the 
following and I now consider this case closed. I learned quite a bit 
about configuring emacs in this little thread so I am happy! I will look 
out for set-fill-column not "sticking" as it should if my brain was 
indeed not fooling me.

(defun my-latex-hook ()
   (message "Running my-latex-hook")
   ;; Using setq does not work, because setq is for setting values of
   ;; variables and there is no variable called auto-fill-mode (as can
   ;; be observed by performing C-h v auto-fill-mode). The correct way
   ;; to turn on auto-fill-mode is to call the funcion auto-fill-mode
   ;; with a positive argument. In some modes there exists a variable
   ;; with the same name as the function which disables or enables that
   ;; mode (a variable that can be used for the same purpose), but
   ;; auto-fill-mode is not one of those modes.
   (auto-fill-mode 1)
   ;; fill-column is a variable so we can use setq on it. However, we
   ;; have decided to use the function set-fill-column which performs
   ;; setq fill-column itself but also displays in the messages buffer
   ;; what it's doing.
   ;; Sometimes it seemed like setq fill-column did not take effect
   ;; as it should but it could just be my imagination...
   (set-fill-column 76)
)
(add-hook 'latex-mode-hook 'my-latex-hook)

- EL