From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Robert J. Chassell" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Customize buttons that change user'scustomfileshouldaskforconfirmation Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 20:22:52 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: References: <004a01c50ce6$4a5ce320$0200a8c0@sedrcw11488> <00b601c50d34$b8187c00$0200a8c0@sedrcw11488> Reply-To: bob@rattlesnake.com NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1107807916 28719 80.91.229.2 (7 Feb 2005 20:25:16 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 20:25:16 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Feb 07 21:25:16 2005 Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1CyFRR-0001U2-Jk for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 07 Feb 2005 21:25:05 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1CyFfd-0007s7-9g for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 07 Feb 2005 15:39:45 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1CyFcu-0006ty-E4 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Feb 2005 15:36:56 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1CyFcq-0006rg-9k for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Feb 2005 15:36:55 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1CyFcq-0006r2-1W for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Feb 2005 15:36:52 -0500 Original-Received: from [69.168.108.225] (helo=rattlesnake.com) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1CyFPO-0006D4-NN for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Feb 2005 15:22:59 -0500 Original-Received: by rattlesnake.com via sendmail from stdin id (Debian Smail3.2.0.115) Mon, 7 Feb 2005 20:22:52 +0000 (UTC) Original-To: emacs-devel@gnu.org In-reply-to: <00b601c50d34$b8187c00$0200a8c0@sedrcw11488> (lennart.borgman.073@student.lu.se) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org X-MailScanner-To: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:33035 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:33035 It is worse than that - since .emacs was not run Custom can not really know where to save and should just say so. Or, do you mean that Custom did overwrite your .emacs? No, this user has no .emacs file; this .emacs file was created automatically. The `custom-set-*' functions were designed to write automatically into your initialization file, which is .emacs by default. (You can change it by setting `user-init-file' to another value.) When you do not have an initialization file, the functions create a .emacs file and write into it. As of today's GNU Emacs CVS snapshot, Mon, 2005 Feb 7 14:18 UTC GNU Emacs 21.3.50.51 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.4.14) a .emacs file can contain either (setq next-line-add-newlines t) or (custom-set-variables '(next-line-add-newlines t)) The effect is the the same. When the initialization file contains two or more variable setting expressions, the last one takes precedence. Mostly, people write `setq' statements in their .emacs file to customize them, although I get the impression that a couple of people here are depending more on the `custom-set-*' functions. People are encouraged to write their own `setq' statements for customization. Otherwise, there computer will look very mysterious. Emacs Lisp, at least its simple expressions, has the virtue of being understandable by just about any one. But some people use the `custom-set-*' functions since they do not yet know how to use `setq' or because they do not understand new features, like faces. For example, I do not know how to set faces with `setq'. So I use `custom-set-faces' in two places in my .emacs file instead. In one of them, where I defined `bobs-w3-font-hook', I edited the expression normally. (That looks nice.... :) In the other, where I set the `bold' face and others, I use the `custom-set-faces' graphic user interface and let it write my .emacs file automatically. (The automatic writing produces ugly looking code ... :( (Obviously, it would be pleasant and useful to fix ugly code production; but that fix is not as important as others that need doing.) Clearly, the phrase "Erase All" should mean "Erase All Customizations". This means converting your `setq' and `custom-set-*' expressions to their default values, deleting your defuns and anything else in your initialization file. Worse, since the Emacs provided by the distribution contains default values, as it must, "Erase All" cannot actually mean erase everything, but must mean "Reset All to Default Values". So I do not think the word "Erase" should be part of the function name or on any menu at all. `Reset to Default' is much more accurate. That phrase works both with the encouraged customization in which you manually edit an initialization file and with customization in which a value is written automatically into that initialization file. -- Robert J. Chassell bob@rattlesnake.com GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8 http://www.rattlesnake.com http://www.teak.cc