Re: Changed outside --> set, in Customize UI

[Luc Teirlinck]

Drew Adams wrote:

   How about an argument justifying the distinction, to stave off
   Occam and his nasty razor?

I gave several arguments.  The fact that you do not understand certain
arguments, or do not agree with them, does not mean that no arguments
were given.

   so, yes, the bugs need to be fixed.

But we can not hurry and try to fix all of them for 22, because that would
nearly guarantee that we would be introducing more bugs than we would fix.

   At a minimum, this preference could, well, itself be treated as a
   user preference, that is, a user option.

I do not believe that it would make sense to introduce an option for
one single release (or *maybe* two should 23 be released very soon
after 22).

After we change the Custom interface to get rid of the various bugs I
described, the user will probably not be able any more to even _try_
to undo an `add-hook' in his .emacs through Custom (which would not
work anyway).  He would see the added hook in the Custom buffer but it
would appear as being "untouchable".  He would have to remove the
`add-hook' from his .emacs.  That is the only way that works anyway.
The _illusion_ of being able to do it from the Custom buffer would no
longer be there. 

We might actually decide to do this not just for hooks and list-vars,
but for _all_ options.  If set in .emacs, make it appear
"untouchable".  If the user really wants to set it through Custom
instead, he can first erase the .emacs customization.  That is the
only solid way to proceed.  Even if the `custom-set-variables' form
occurs _after_ the setq and the setq thus _gets_ overridden, that setq
is bound to sooner or later confuse the user.

_Not_ for 22, however.  *Much* too late in the game.

Sincerely,

Luc.