From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Drew Adams" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: RE: void variable problem Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:14:01 -0700 Message-ID: <12D24447231147E38D0A385FE74A83E4@us.oracle.com> References: <87aagl92xk.fsf@engels.HistoricalMaterialism.info> <8762r98z78.fsf@engels.HistoricalMaterialism.info> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1300922074 20767 80.91.229.12 (23 Mar 2011 23:14:34 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2011 23:14:34 +0000 (UTC) To: "'Haines Brown'" , Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Mar 24 00:14:30 2011 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 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Q2XG2-0005N5-50 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:14:30 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:56783 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Q2XG1-00065X-GW for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:14:29 -0400 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=37297 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Q2XFh-00065S-Ab for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:14:10 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Q2XFg-0004l0-7G for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:14:09 -0400 Original-Received: from rcsinet10.oracle.com ([148.87.113.121]:57646) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Q2XFg-0004kq-1v for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:14:08 -0400 Original-Received: from acsinet15.oracle.com (acsinet15.oracle.com [141.146.126.227]) by rcsinet10.oracle.com (Switch-3.4.2/Switch-3.4.2) with ESMTP id p2NNE2fR026385 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK); Wed, 23 Mar 2011 23:14:05 GMT Original-Received: from acsmt358.oracle.com (acsmt358.oracle.com [141.146.40.158]) by acsinet15.oracle.com (Switch-3.4.2/Switch-3.4.1) with ESMTP id p2NNE2cT015255 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Wed, 23 Mar 2011 23:14:02 GMT Original-Received: from abhmt007.oracle.com (abhmt007.oracle.com [141.146.116.16]) by acsmt358.oracle.com (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p2NNE1ZT026659; Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:14:01 -0500 Original-Received: from dradamslap1 (/130.35.178.194) by default (Oracle Beehive Gateway v4.0) with ESMTP ; Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:14:00 -0700 X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 In-Reply-To: <8762r98z78.fsf@engels.HistoricalMaterialism.info> Thread-Index: AcvpieV6yJatqYJ8QlmIu97tfMs/JQAJAriw X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5994 X-Source-IP: acsmt358.oracle.com [141.146.40.158] X-Auth-Type: Internal IP X-CT-RefId: str=0001.0A090203.4D8A7EBA.00CC,ss=1,fgs=0 X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-Received-From: 148.87.113.121 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:80368 Archived-At: > Thank you and Eli for pointing out what should have been > obvious to me. > > I was blissfully unaware of the Customize feature of emacs, and wonder > why you recommend it in this case. The recommendation is not of the things-won't-work-otherwise sort. Regardless of its off-putting UI, I recommend Customize in general, for several reasons, including these: 1. It is type-aware. You cannot assign a value of the wrong type. Of course, the programmer who wrote the `defcustom' defining the option needs to have defined it with a reasonable type. If the type is too general (more or less anything) then you lose the power of type-checking. 2. It is less error-prone in general (e.g. typos). > As best I can make out, it creates a set of values for variables. Yes. > But I don't see that the synonyms command requires setting values > for variables, unless it is the name and location of the thesaurus > and cache, Right, it does not require you to change any other options. But there are other options you can change, if you want: `synonyms-append-result-flag', `synonyms-fill-column', `synonyms-match-more-flag', `synonyms-mode-hook', `synonyms-use-cygwin-flag', `synonyms-dictionary-url', `synonyms-dictionary-url', and `synonyms-dictionary-alternate-url'. > which at this point I simply define in .emacs > initiatialization. Why is it better to do it some other way? See above. There is nothing wrong with doing everything in your .emacs. I recommend Customize in general, because it provides those benefits, but you need not use it. If you had used it then type-checking would have prevented the problem you ran into by forgetting to use double-quotes with `setq', as one example. HTH - Drew