Re: Misc. minor compile.el issues

[Richard Stallman]

    The doc string for compilation-process-setup-function starts with a
    `*' identifying it as a user option.  Does that really make sense?

That depends on where we draw the line about what is a user option.
The line as currently drawn includes many similar variables.  For
instance, 76 normal hooks are marked as user options, although the
usual place for them to be set is certainly in Lisp code.

Perhaps we should move the line and none of these should be user
options.

    Related to this, I would like the setup function to be able to
    access the buffer and/or window for the compilation process (e.g.
    to set buffer-local variables).

Can we make them current while the hook runs?

    As a final issue, I think that although the documentation for
    compilation-process-setup-function says it is run just before the
    process is started, it makes more sense to swap the following two
    forms, to allow the setup function to control the
    compilation-window-height:

            (compilation-set-window-height outwin)
            (if compilation-process-setup-function
                (funcall compilation-process-setup-function))

Isn't it easier to do that with the current order?  Currently,
compilation-process-setup-function could enlarge the window.
If it is called first, what would it do to alter the height?
Locally set compilation-window-height, perhaps?