bug#5529: `uniquify-buffer-name-style' doesn't exist

[Stefan Monnier]

>> > Seems to me that what's wanted is an autoload for variables, just like
>> > we've got for functions/macros.  Or have we got this already?  Then when
>> > anybody tries to access this variable in any way, uniquify.elc would get
>> > loaded.
>> We can autoload defcustoms, but there are so many so we probably do
>> not want that.
> Why?  The "eight megabytes and continually swapping" joke is several
> decades out of date.

Actually, the problem is not just its size, it's that the
current ;;;###autoload behavior for variables is not quite as clean as
it is for functions: it doesn't auto-load the package when accessing the
var, but instead it preloads just the variable, thus changing the order
of execution between the variable that are "autoloaded" and those that
aren't, thus leading to all kinds of bugs and problems.

What Lennart has been working on is a real autoloading mechanism,
whereby the package will be loaded when the user asks to customize
this variable.

>> Therefore Stefan instead had the idea that we can make them available
>> for completion, for example when you do "M-x customize-option". If
>> choosen they will then be loaded. I started to work a bit on that, but
>> it is not finished. (See the thread I pointed to.)

> What does "make them available" mean?  Create a separate obarray for
> them, perhaps?

The technical means by which the autoloading will take place is not
finalized yet.  Lennart has something implemented using some technique,
but IIRC it was still using too much memory for my taste.


        Stefan