Re: status of dir-vars or dir-locals inclusion in emacs?

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

project.el looks like just the right thing.
Could you write changes to etc/NEWS and the Emacs Manual
to describe it?

I think a few small changes should be made.

* Rename `project-define-class' to `define-project-bindings'.

* Rename `project-define-instance' to `set-directory-project'.

* Rename `project-set-variables' to `project-install-bindings'.
Likewise other names derived from that one.

    ;; - need a way to add to auto-mode-alist per-project
    ;;   e.g., semantic wants GCC's .def files to be c-mode

That seems secondary -- it is not hard to make files specify
their major modes.

    ;; - should cache the mod time of settings file and then reload it
    ;;   or at least offer user a way to invalidate cache

Does that mean, in case the project settings change, it should update
the bindings in the relevant buffers?  It should be easy to store in
the alist a cons cell that was made by `define-project-bindings', and
copy that into a buffer-local variable.  Then by comparison you can
tell whether the project's settings have changed since they were
installed into the current buffer.

    ;; - should let the user augment the project settings with personal ones

Isn't this what `project-define-class' does?
How would this be different from that?