Re: CUSTOMIZE: Re: how to turn on showing end of file?

[Tim X <timx@nospam.dev.null>]

dkcombs@panix.com (David Combs) writes:

> In article <mailman.6691.1252971966.2239.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>,
>  <jidanni@jidanni.org> wrote:
>>PD> I'd simply use the customise interface! Writing Elisp code...
>>Sorry, for me I hate the customise interface, and can only deal with
>>(setq ...) stuff.
>>
>>
>
> I myself have never been able to profitably use the
> customize interface.
>
> MY problem is that, as with many menu-driven gui-interfaces (eg
>    main --> syntax --> foo-words --> regexp-search-for-special-word--FOO ),
>
> is that I have no idea how to find anything, no idea of where to 
> even look for something.
>
> What would be *really* nice would be a command that, starting
> at whatever customize-node you're corrently at, would draw (indented text)
> the entire "subtree" of it, all the way down to the leaf items.
>
> AND really nice if also could output a .pdf-file of it -- and
> if it turned out that same leaf item occurred under several
> subtrees, so the tree became a directed graph, then via
> some nifty-clever graph-drawing algorithm (such as at
> Brown univ's site devoted to them), something we
> could browse over via mouse, zoom, etc, even print out,
> scotch-tape pages together, and hang on wall.
>
> Plus the probably impossible: when new items added, some
> kind of (graphic?) diff?
>
> Otherwise, for me it's *info* and M-x Occur on the index,
> that kind of thing.
>
>
> PLEASE -- SOMEONE make customize easier to find things in!
>
> Thanks!
>
> David
>
>
>

A couple of things that may make customize easier for you

1. M-x customize-group. All customizations are part of a group. These
groups are in a hierarchy with the group 'emacs' at the top. Using this
command, you can jump into just a specific group. For example, if you
wanted to customize things relating to ecb, you would enter ecb at the
prompt for M-x customize-group. You also have completion available, so
you can see what groups exist. 

2. Generally speaking, if you do a 'describe' on a variable, if that
variable has a 'customize' interface, it will have a line in the output
saying sometihghin like

"This variable can be customized'

where customized is underlined and is a hyperlink. Clicking on it will
bring up the customize buffer for that variable. 

3. You also have  a lot of other customize functions that will provide
   you with lots of other ways to work with customize, such as

   M-x customize-variable, which gives the customize interface for a
   specific variable
   M-x customize-apropos which does a apropos just for customize
   variable
   M-x customize-face to customize a specific face. By default, it will
   do the face under point.
   m-x customize-option

and then there are a heap for selecting variables that have been set
through customize, ones that have not been set etc.

While it took me a long time to switch to using customize, now that I
have, its really useful - especially the cusotmize-group command. I've
also found that in some cases, setting the value through customize gives
much better/more reliable results than doing it via elisp in my .emacs
file. Not sure why there is a difference, but in some cases, there
certainly is.

Tim
  
   


-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au