Why is make-variable-buffer-local interactive?

Why is make-variable-buffer-local interactive?

[Lennart Borgman (gmail)]

Does it really make sense to do such changes interactively? If you know 
what you are doing when you call this function then surely you know how 
to do it in elisp, or?

Re: Why is make-variable-buffer-local interactive?

[Stefan Monnier]

> Does it really make sense to do such changes interactively? If you know what
> you are doing when you call this function then surely you know how to do it
> in elisp, or?

Indeed.  Please make it non-interactive.


        Stefan

Re: Why is make-variable-buffer-local interactive?

[Toby Allsopp]

On Thu, Mar 20 2008, Lennart Borgman (gmail) wrote:

> Does it really make sense to do such changes interactively? If you
> know what you are doing when you call this function then surely you
> know how to do it in elisp, or?

FWIW, I use M-x make-variable-buffer-local quite often while editing
Perl code using cperl-mode.  I find that I quite often want different
values of `cperl-indent-level' in different buffers.  Perhaps this means
I should just put (make-variable-buffer-local 'cperl-indent-level) in my
.emacs.

Toby.

Re: Why is make-variable-buffer-local interactive?

[Lennart Borgman (gmail)]

Toby Allsopp wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 20 2008, Lennart Borgman (gmail) wrote:
> 
>> Does it really make sense to do such changes interactively? If you
>> know what you are doing when you call this function then surely you
>> know how to do it in elisp, or?
> 
> FWIW, I use M-x make-variable-buffer-local quite often while editing
> Perl code using cperl-mode.  I find that I quite often want different
> values of `cperl-indent-level' in different buffers.  Perhaps this means
> I should just put (make-variable-buffer-local 'cperl-indent-level) in my
> .emacs.

Yes, probably. There is of course also make-local-variable which is less 
drastic (but does not help very much in .emacs ... ;-)

Re: Why is make-variable-buffer-local interactive?

[Stefan Monnier]

>> Does it really make sense to do such changes interactively? If you
>> know what you are doing when you call this function then surely you
>> know how to do it in elisp, or?

> FWIW, I use M-x make-variable-buffer-local quite often while editing
> Perl code using cperl-mode.  I find that I quite often want different
> values of `cperl-indent-level' in different buffers.  Perhaps this means
> I should just put (make-variable-buffer-local 'cperl-indent-level) in my
> .emacs.

This is not a good use case for make-variable-buffer-local.  It's a use
case for make-local-variable (or something along these lines: maybe
there should be a M-x set-var-locally).


        Stefan

Re: Why is make-variable-buffer-local interactive?

[Juanma Barranquero]

On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 6:59 PM, Stefan Monnier
<monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:

> (or something along these lines: maybe
>  there should be a M-x set-var-locally).

C-u M-x set-variable <RET>

 Juanma

Re: Why is make-variable-buffer-local interactive?

[Toby Allsopp]

Toby Allsopp wrote:

>> FWIW, I use M-x make-variable-buffer-local quite often while editing
>> Perl code using cperl-mode.  I find that I quite often want different
>> values of `cperl-indent-level' in different buffers.  Perhaps this means
>> I should just put (make-variable-buffer-local 'cperl-indent-level) in my
>> .emacs.

On Fri, Mar 21 2008, Lennart Borgman (gmail) wrote:

> Yes, probably. There is of course also make-local-variable which is
> less drastic (but does not help very much in .emacs ... ;-)

On Sat, Mar 22 2008, Stefan Monnier wrote:

> This is not a good use case for make-variable-buffer-local.  It's a use
> case for make-local-variable (or something along these lines: maybe
> there should be a M-x set-var-locally).

Ah, thanks, make-local-variable sounds like exactly what I actually
want.  Something like set-var-locally would be pretty handy, but I can
easily define one in my .emacs.

Regards,
Toby.

Re: Why is make-variable-buffer-local interactive?

[Stefan Monnier]

>> (or something along these lines: maybe
>> there should be a M-x set-var-locally).

> C-u M-x set-variable <RET>

Thanks,


        Stefan "who uses M-: (set (make-local-variable ...) ...) instead"

Re: Why is make-variable-buffer-local interactive?

[Toby Allsopp]

On Sat, Mar 22 2008, Juanma Barranquero wrote:

> On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 6:59 PM, Stefan Monnier
> <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:
>
>> (or something along these lines: maybe
>>  there should be a M-x set-var-locally).
>
> C-u M-x set-variable <RET>

Well there you go!  It was right under my nose all along.

Thanks,
Toby.