Re: Scratch buffer annoyance

[David Kastrup]

"Drew Adams" <address@hidden> writes:

> I wouldn't strongly argue

You argue against anything not designed by yourself until everybody is
exhausted, so the strength is irrelevant.

> against having a value that is evaled, but I don't really see that
> as needed. And users, especially newbies, might get into more
> trouble if we do that.

Newbies are to use customize, and thus can't get into trouble.

> I don't think it would be "easier to customize" - I think the
> opposite.  A user would need to provide both the destination string
> and the action function to apply to it.  That could be confusing -
> for little or no gain (for the user).
>
> Why not just make sure that the value is a literal string of the
> right kind,

Drew, get a grip.  A string is of kind string, period.  There is no
"right" or "wrong" kind.  That is precisely the problem.

> and provide only for `dired', `find-file', and `switch-to-buffer' as
> the actions?

Well, have you actually taken a look at the code?  That is exactly
what the customization type provided.

> Is there a real need to go beyond that to evaluation and arbitrary
> actions?
>
> If there is a _user_ need (benefit) for an evaled expression, then
> let's hear it, but if this proposal is just because we seem to be
> having difficulty finding a good way to implement file, directory,
> and buffer values, then that's wrong. Let's not burden the user if
> we can avoid it.

There is no burden whatsoever for the user involved.  He gets the
right customization choices, and nothing else.  A fuzzy "Please try
figuring out what I mean by it" string of "the right kind" where the
user has no chance to figure out what action will result (since not
even Emacs has a chance to figure out without trying) is _not_ _at_
_all_ helpful for the user.

So please stop pretending that there are no valid objections and you
already have addressed them by handwaving.

It is likely possible to use a funcall here instead of an eval, but
the customized forms will be quite the same, and there are no savings
of confusion involved.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum