Re: Documentation for custom-file - is not (load custom-file) needed?

[Lennart Borgman]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Stallman" <address@hidden>
To: <address@hidden>
Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 8:51 PM
Subject: Re: Documentation for custom-file - is not (load custom-file)
needed?


> I read the various messages about custom-file, and this
> is what I think we should do.
>
> 1. We should eliminate custom-file as a defcustom.

Yes. But I believe we also should try to eleminate it from the
(custom-set-variables ...) where it currently could be. Could that be done
by avoiding defvar too and using boundp later for the checks?


> 2. We should eliminate loading custom-file on startup.
>    We should tell users that .emacs should load the appropriate file
>    where custom values are stored.

Yes. But maybe we could reuse Stefans idea of loading "custom file" after
.emacs in another way. I would like to get (custom-set-variables ...) out of
.emacs by default, because I believe most users do not want it to be edited
automatically. Why not use another file name as default for
(custom-set-variables ...), say .emacs-custom? This file could be loaded by
startup.el if not loaded before, the way Stefan has suggested for "custom
file".


> 3. Calling custom-set-variables in a file should add that file
>    to a list of files that have done so.
>
> 4. Evaluating a custom-set-variables call in a buffer should not do
>    any such thing.

Why not?


> 5. When saving custom variables, if custom-file is set, save in that
file....
> 6. If the user wants to specify which file to save in,...
> 7. Eventually, in the future, we might figure out some clean UI for ...

I agree.

- Lennart