From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Dr Rainer Woitok Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Configuration files vs customization Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2023 17:34:19 +0100 Message-ID: <25548.5130.933634.159947@woitok.gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="4059"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Sat Jan 21 17:35:04 2023 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1pJGpb-0000q6-VQ for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org; Sat, 21 Jan 2023 17:35:03 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1] helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1pJGp0-0004xx-KE; Sat, 21 Jan 2023 11:34:26 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1pJGoy-0004uY-6J for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 21 Jan 2023 11:34:24 -0500 Original-Received: from mail-wr1-x436.google.com ([2a00:1450:4864:20::436]) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_128_GCM_SHA256:128) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1pJGow-0008Qp-Ly for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 21 Jan 2023 11:34:23 -0500 Original-Received: by mail-wr1-x436.google.com with SMTP id t5so7335786wrq.1 for ; Sat, 21 Jan 2023 08:34:22 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20210112; h=subject:to:message-id:content-transfer-encoding:mime-version:date :from:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id:reply-to; bh=ONaWH7+0EGePq8EhMq0PhmTRSB0V3blU8EVxsR/GL1A=; b=dWPGQ46bZevqUkf30aD7P592xttOj52QaGfJGV7kxNJe0ehZdCax8x3lWNvFChWy9M fW5JSHxn+0M3jEpTmkTn3tQYzrLup88RKN51SSPwvY1E852RgDZ/pol8Z2hVz4m8+WzF tfuv2v1HeVC45lL2VWys35XfNAH7fPYomAhH7Zogo+Vh5od/8UL5lBMVmd+kCVIGb5mg aLugjVyTegMLOSGmDDwzFFCOhNWY3IIsiVVnDhvaBmObsqveX3pbh8pTxvk5fqRX2dCO 16Su4+dRlOkRm/3mBcPTUubYKUyregaEM4lc+UDZ+uPTnDqZdmEfjOqKr2zhdMGpZdsm tUgg== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20210112; h=subject:to:message-id:content-transfer-encoding:mime-version:date :from:x-gm-message-state:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id:reply-to; bh=ONaWH7+0EGePq8EhMq0PhmTRSB0V3blU8EVxsR/GL1A=; b=hQCQoengLDgNiTHcGC7dO9YU3QupTPkgcuUR08DxE0Fg1fkL1/EFH+brHjcrR/pxmm 8u2TvuaOauZwsa8bMvH6BJ4RTZdgN2uQfxxmh2Wp3icf3xa42/5r2dI6MYkyBp0RHruR zs049n0ZTPZHL2lw97fE6BWmh8RZMyGaQDkEZxFdNXtBP2IVhfkSu8Y32Xa2Rp3NAhNL nuozxDQu39NhR/XqawiYJ7CFuRBQ6saLsc6/hEc68ZTwNpRRKht2R9+P5V40TmechQKn E/KNa07b1l50+KLPKLd3TF9/SN6yPB1z1iC6aSTR3D4NSd6qpco0qE6uEfYbqvrZfwqd 4jgQ== X-Gm-Message-State: AFqh2koWrk+EakiJ2b1xaitp5Ug26FOJnC2KahYmR0ZlifmnSpws/Ctr wyrLabipLJmuaRgqjEx6ffreck8oVR8= X-Google-Smtp-Source: AMrXdXtjgkoVj4sp5B71/Q37WJS/6rzZMm1wN6KCo1SXxWgXBUkqJYQPXVr9ugRw2oV6IYTz2JCXFw== X-Received: by 2002:a5d:5087:0:b0:2bd:e220:6b5 with SMTP id a7-20020a5d5087000000b002bde22006b5mr16277979wrt.1.1674318860916; Sat, 21 Jan 2023 08:34:20 -0800 (PST) Original-Received: from gmail.com (p200300df0743a4421682540f07c5b59e.dip0.t-ipconnect.de. [2003:df:743:a442:1682:540f:7c5:b59e]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id n9-20020adf8b09000000b00241d21d4652sm365082wra.21.2023.01.21.08.34.20 for (version=TLS1_3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 bits=256/256); Sat, 21 Jan 2023 08:34:20 -0800 (PST) X-Google-Original-From: Dr Rainer Woitok X-Mailer: VM 8.2.0b under 28.2 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) Received-SPF: pass client-ip=2a00:1450:4864:20::436; envelope-from=rainer.woitok@gmail.com; helo=mail-wr1-x436.google.com X-Spam_score_int: -20 X-Spam_score: -2.1 X-Spam_bar: -- X-Spam_report: (-2.1 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, DKIM_SIGNED=0.1, DKIM_VALID=-0.1, DKIM_VALID_AU=-0.1, DKIM_VALID_EF=-0.1, FREEMAIL_FROM=0.001, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE=-0.0001, SPF_HELO_NONE=0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.help:142479 Archived-At: Greetings, in the course of my transition from XEmacs to Emacs I meanwhile have reached the point of getting Vm running under Emacs. But my first at- tempt utterly failed. After some experimenting and checking variable values with "C-h v" I came to the conclusion that at least in some vari- ables' descriptions the remark "You can customize this variable" really meant "You HAVE TO customize this variable". So eventually I removed everything customizable from my ".vm" configu- ration file and customized it instead. And then Vm worked as expected. Why is that? Do I have to use "defvar" rather than "setq" in my ".vm" configuration file to mark these variables as dynamically bound? Personally, I hate this clicky-clicky customization interface because it doesn't evaluate the values, even though function "custom-set-variables" provides an option to do so. Thus you can't use things like '(getenv "HOME")', '(getenv "HOST")' or '(cond ...)'. The lack of this flexibi- lity makes configuration rather tricky. And according to the comment ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance. ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right. function "custom-set-variables" writes into my "custom.el" file, putting a call to "custom-set-variables" together with the Vm specific customi- zation directly into configuration file ".vm" is not expected to work. So being forced to put more or less all application specific configura- tion into one big "custom.el" file which on top of all does only accept constants as values is quite a nuisance for me. Originally, having se- parate configuration files like ".vm" or ".gnus.el" had the purpose not to clutter one's "init.el" file and to save time when firing up Emacs without also starting Vm or Gnus. How do others solve these configuration problems? Sincerely, Rainer