bug#72426: 29.2.50; comint-pager doesn't affect async-shell-command

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Spencer Baugh <sbaugh@janestreet.com>
> Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2024 12:42:00 -0400
> Cc: 72426@debbugs.gnu.org
> 
>  > comint-terminfo-terminal affects async-shell-command, why not this?
> 
>  Ugh!  A mistake, IMNSHO.  But that ship sailed a long time ago, so we
>  cannot fix the mistake.  We can avoid enlarging the mistake, though.
> 
>  > If the fact that the variable is in comint is the problem, I can rename it and move it elsewhere.
> 
>  I don't think functions that are almost primitives should pay
>  attention to application-level features such as this one.
> 
> If we're not going to make the variable apply to all usage, I think it should just be deleted before 30 is
> released.  There's no point to it in that case, because it's still necessary to add (setenv "PAGER" "cat") to
> one's configuration.
> 
> Alternatively, the default of comint-pager should be set to "cat".
> 
> But I see no value in a variable like this if it neither applies to all (or at least most) users, nor provides better
> default behavior.
> 
>  >  Lisp programs that use async-shell-command can arrange for
>  >  process-environment to have PAGER=SOMETHING as they see fit.
>  > 
>  > My intention is primarily to affect interactive usage of async-shell-command.
> 
>  But comint-term-environment also affects "M-x compile".
> 
> Yes, I would like comint-pager to also affect that.

That makes very little sense to me, as "M-x compile" is used for
non-interactive programs.