From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: robert.thorpe@antenova.com Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: setq and setq-default Date: 13 Sep 2006 09:29:56 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: <1158164996.335560.182180@i3g2000cwc.googlegroups.com> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1158165693 20408 80.91.229.2 (13 Sep 2006 16:41:33 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 16:41:33 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Sep 13 18:41:30 2006 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1GNXnL-0008Q7-12 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 13 Sep 2006 18:41:03 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1GNXnE-000810-LW for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 13 Sep 2006 12:40:56 -0400 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!postnews.google.com!i3g2000cwc.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 17 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 213.94.228.210 Original-X-Trace: posting.google.com 1158165001 12746 127.0.0.1 (13 Sep 2006 16:30:01 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 16:30:01 +0000 (UTC) In-Reply-To: User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.10) Gecko/20050716 Firefox/1.0.6,gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe) X-HTTP-Via: 1.0 EMF3ASPROXY03 Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: i3g2000cwc.googlegroups.com; posting-host=213.94.228.210; posting-account=hWoAPxMAAAAnBKSBz1ZivwUPPjEuve7bvVCHZQ8rhrluPfwcBJd92w Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:141714 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org 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:37336 Archived-At: jronald wrote: > I studied them for a while, but without details and examples. > > For example, what is the difference of the two below: > (setq-default tab-width 8) This is the general way to set the default value of a variable. If you put (setq-default foo 9) then in the context of every buffer you create foo will be 9 unless the buffer has it's own value for that variable. > (setq default-tab-width 8) This means the same thing, except it is a mechanism specific to tab-width, not all variables have a special "default" form associated with them. Only a handful have them, I don't know why, perhaps setq-default didn't exist in very early Emacs.