RE: What version of Emacs still requires '*' in defcustom docs?

[Drew Adams]

> > Eg GNU Emacs has not needed this since at least 21.1 (see 
> > user-variable-p).

Yes, and it was 21.1 that _introduced_ the bug (#10475), which is still there.
Two steps forward, one step back.  Half-baked.
 
> PS 21.1 is over 10 years old.

So are some Emacs users. ;-)

Does it bother you that `C-h v' should have to accommodate a leading `*' for a
user variable, even though `defcustom' no longer _requires_ a leading `*'?  All
it has to do is ignore (strip) it.  What's the big deal?  The fix is trivial,
and is provided in the bug report.

Besides, `C-h v' needs to do the same thing _anyway_ for a user variable defined
this way:

(defvar toto 42 "*This IS a user var. Always has been.")

`toto' is a user variable, as defined and recognized by `user-variable-p' (which
you cited) and as recognized by `set-variable'.

Circulez ; il n'y a rien a voir.