Re: .emacs-settings.el

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Fri, 07 Sep 2007 00:07:50 +0300 Juri Linkov <address@hidden> wrote: 

>> I think you've missed the difference between a hidden file anywhere in
>> the directory tree and in a well-known location.  We're talking about a
>> {project,dir-locals}.el file that in /a, /a/b, /a/b/c, or /a/b/c/d could
>> affect the settings for /a/b/c/d/* and every file under that.  You'd
>> have to do a `find` to get all the hidden files (or some equivalent
>> shell game).  That's what I mean by "suprising" and "hidden."  Only a
>> few applications put such hidden settings files outside the home
>> directory, I can think only of the CVS .cvsignore and Subversion .svn
>> directories at the moment.  Emacs doesn't do that AFAIK, so it would be
>> at least a little surprising to current users.  I personally think it
>> would be a bad design decision.

JL> I think this problem can be completely mitigated exactly with the same
JL> solution you already proposed, i.e. C-h v and customize-variable should
JL> say that the variable's value is overridden by .project.el or .settings.el
JL> (like C-h f says that the function is advised).

That would be fine with me.  A user-visible message would also be very
useful.  I'm really just trying to avoid the debugging sessions I can
imagine ensuing from a hidden file that overrides a few local settings.
With these two safeguards (C-h v/customize-variable plus decent
messaging) I think the risk is much smaller.

Ted