RE: A modern-mode?

[Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> Any chance you could turn it into a custom-theme?

> Part of the difference between a minor mode and a custom theme is that
> a custom theme is more declarative, with consequences such as the fact
> that a user can enable your hypothetical "modern theme" but with
> `fido-mode` disabled, and it won't have the effect of "enabling and then
> disabling" `fido-mode` (e.g. running `fido-mode-hook` twice along the
> way).

I'm not sure a theme is better than a global minor
mode.  I agree that there should be easy ways for
a user to choose what to turn on/off, including
easy ways to add things to turn on/off that aren't
included in whatever is provided by default.

I'm no expert on themes or minor modes, but I think
there's room for improvement of how to make such
enablement easier and more discoverable.  The minor
mode approach sounds like a good one to me, as far
as it goes.

> I'm mostly interested in pushing the limits of what can be done with
> custom themes

The aim here should, I think, be to provide users
with easy ways to:

1. Turn on(/off) a set of default settings that we
   generally think new users might appreciate.

2. Turn on(/off) individual settings in that set,
   i.e., to "customize/personalize" that set.

3. Add new settings to the default set, from
   wherever.

An aim of "pushing the limits of custom themes",
to see what can be done with them is something
else.

No doubt such an exploration could help with the
aim of helping new users get into Emacs.  But
those two aims are not the same.