From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Some developement questions Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2018 17:45:21 +0300 Message-ID: <8336v6cvem.fsf@gnu.org> References: <444779489.8504194.1534538988289.ref@mail.yahoo.com> <444779489.8504194.1534538988289@mail.yahoo.com> <83sh3cfb3t.fsf@gnu.org> <87sh36inql.fsf@himinbjorg.adminart.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1534949013 4641 195.159.176.226 (22 Aug 2018 14:43:33 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2018 14:43:33 +0000 (UTC) Cc: spacibba@aol.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: hw Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Aug 22 16:43:29 2018 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1fsUM5-00016M-FO for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 22 Aug 2018 16:43:29 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:59396 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fsUOB-0001xf-Tm for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 22 Aug 2018 10:45:39 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:59831) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fsUO0-0001rP-Gr for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 22 Aug 2018 10:45:29 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fsUNx-0004DP-AB for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 22 Aug 2018 10:45:28 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:34446) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fsUNx-0004DB-6U; Wed, 22 Aug 2018 10:45:25 -0400 Original-Received: from [176.228.60.248] (port=4134 helo=home-c4e4a596f7) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtpsa (TLS1.2:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:256) (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1fsUNw-0007d4-Md; Wed, 22 Aug 2018 10:45:25 -0400 In-reply-to: <87sh36inql.fsf@himinbjorg.adminart.net> (message from hw on Wed, 22 Aug 2018 14:34:26 +0200) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:228812 Archived-At: > From: hw > Cc: Ergus , emacs-devel@gnu.org > Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2018 14:34:26 +0200 > > > Exactly my point: you have just enumerated at least 3 different > > classes of users, and the solution is different for every one of them. > > Finding a way of being friendly to each class is the problem to solve. > > One possible solution could be groups of Custom options that are > > likely to be relevant to each class of users, and writing > > customization commands that target each class. Patches are welcome. > > How about including a number of ~/.emacs files, containing options > supposed to make things easier for a class of users --- or include > groups of ~/.emacs files so that for any given class, there can be many > configurations to pick from within a group? IMO, that would be too radical, because in an init file each option already has a value. So we will have to decide for the users whether or not they want certain options to have certain values. That might work for boolean options, but many options in Emacs are non-boolean. As just one example, consider display-line-numbers-mode -- it has between 3 and 4 different styles, so which one would you put in the .emacs? By contrast, by creating a group of options, we don't need to decide for the users what values of which options they like; we just make the options we think are relevant for them more easily discoverable. I also think that browsing through a Custom buffer is more user-friendly than telling the users to find their way through several files. Thanks.