Re: Option to not automatically customize-save-variable `package-selected-packages'?

[Joost Kremers <joostkremers@fastmail.fm>]

On Wed, Feb 17 2016, John Wiegley <jwiegley@gmail.com> wrote:
> This sounds like a reasonable request to me; and I sympathize with emitting
> such generated data to a potentially user-controlled file. Maybe this data
> could go into another file entirely?

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that `custom-set-variables' /
`customize-save-variable' should not be used to store data that should
persist across sessions, though I can't find right now where I read it.

Of course it can be argued that the user asks for the packages to be
installed and that this fact justifies saving the info to the init file.
At the very least, though, I think there should be an option *not* to do
this. After all, this option exists with customisable variables in
general: the user can decide to use Customize, or s/he can decide to set
variables directly in the init file.

IMHO the location where the list of packages is saved should be
customisable, with the default being something other than the init file
(though that should probably be an option), and with the option not to
save them at all. (I don't use the same set of packages on all machines,
because some packages can be fairly resource-intensive and bog down
Emacs on a lower-spec'ed machine such as my ageing netbook or my phone.)


-- 
Joost Kremers
Life has its moments