emacs-devel
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: fancy-splash-screen customize group...


From: Luc Teirlinck
Subject: Re: fancy-splash-screen customize group...
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2005 21:21:35 -0600 (CST)

>From my previous message:
   
   One should under no circumstances encourage anybody, certainly not
   beginners, to use these buttons.  They are completely untested: nobody
   uses them.  Their code is fragile.  Any apparently unrelated change in
   Custom can easily badly break them badly without warning (and nobody
   will notice, because nobody uses them).

Let me give one example of what I mean with:

   Their code is fragile.  Any apparently unrelated change in
   Custom can easily badly break them badly without warning

These whole buffer buttons do not operate on options whose value is
"hidden".  That is, options whose value is hidden will not be saved,
set or reset by these buttons.  A while ago somebody suggested that
this was counterintuitive and that beginners would expect them to
operate on options with hidden values.  It was suggested by some to
make the whole buffer buttons operate on such options.  Fortunately,
that was never implemented.

The correct functioning of the whole buffer buttons relies heavily on
the fact that they do not operate on options whose values is hidden.
This is not at all obvious, unless you study the code carefully:
nobody involved in the discussion about these options apparently
realized it.  (I did not realize it myself at the time.)

If the suggested change would have been implemented, the whole buffer
buttons would have started to operate on child groups and recursively
on their "offspring" groups.  The results would have been disastrous to
users of these buttons.

In general, any change in the way hidden values are implemented or
treated could easily badly mess up these whole buffer buttons in a
very non-obvious way.

Sincerely,

Luc.




reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]