RE: Keybinding Patch gtags.el

[Stan Moore]

From: Shigio YAMAGUCHI [mailto:address@hidden
> Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2013 10:45 PM
> To: Stan Moore
> Cc: address@hidden
> Subject: Re: Keybinding Patch gtags.el
> 
> On Wed, 11 Sep 2013 18:50:41 -0400
> "Stan Moore" <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> > I've seen all kinds of setup code: some good, some bad, some outdated,
> > and some just terrible. If you feel a custom exists then by all means
> > follow it with my blessings.
> 
> Isn't the right method written to the manual?

I'm not sure I understand the question. Which manual? The Emacs manual? The
Global Manual? The gtags keybindings are not specifically called out in any
manual. 

Actually none of the manuals advocates a single or even preferred method
that I've ever seen. As best I can tell quite a bit of Lisp is do whatever
works and enjoy the flexibility. Typically manuals simply refer you to the
relevant variables and allow you to choose how to set them. The manuals
don't typically include example setups. To me it seems they custom is to
point newbies at the customization framework and point more experienced
users at the specific variables which is generally enough to get them going.
Some modes, CEDET for example, are pretty complicated and offer an abundance
of choices so there is much more information available regarding setup but a
typical package doesn't require much.  But that means you see cookbook
setups posted everywhere and those are of variable quality.

> 
> > The official GNU Global manual (info) has a chapter about using
> > gtags.el with emacs but it doesn't mention the keybindings. Instead it
> > has the user manually call the functions by name. In that
> > documentation, the gtags-mode is set in the c-mode hook but the
> keybinding var is not mentioned.
>
> Originally, key bindings are decided by an individual, I think.
> Since gtags-mode is a minor mode, it must live together with other
hundreds
> minor modes. However, I promise to write an example of .emacs which
> includes 'gtags-suggested-key-mapping' as I said.

I don't know of many minor modes that don't offer some keybindings. Many
allow toggling the keybindings and of course all allow changing any default
bindings. The built in tags functions, all the cscope (tags like) helper
modes, and all the tags minor modes I'm aware of all offer keybindings by
default.
 
> By the way, if possible, would you please clarify your purpose?
> Is it a suggestion? bug fixing? improvement? request?
> I cannot understand the purpose of your patch too.

As I mentioned in my first post, I have a hard time calling it an outright
bug but the feature doesn't work as expected. The original code only reads
the variable when gtags.el is  autoloaded so setting the variable in .emacs
won't work. My change reads the variable when the mode is activated in the
customary method and allows the user to customize gtags-mode in .emacs. The
timing in the original code only allows a user to use the customization
interface, the change allows the usual configuration methods. So I would be
happy with calling it either a bug fix or an improvement to make gtags.el
work like other customizable modes.

Stan