Re: Option to not automatically customize-save-variable `package-selected-packages'

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Kaushal Modi <address@hidden>
> Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2016 14:05:29 -0500
> Cc: Artur Malabarba <address@hidden>, address@hidden, 
>       John Wiegley <address@hidden>, Emacs developers <address@hidden>
> 
>  I'd
>  still like to understand what's so special about this particular
>  customization.
> 
> IMO this particular customization is not portable across multiple machines. 
> All machines need not have the
> same packages installed; reasons: different emacs versions, one machine begin 
> at work, another at home,
> etc.

I have the same problem with a lot of my customizations.  I don't see
why this one is different.

> Another reason is that this variable is more like persistent data cache which 
> updates very frequently (unlike
> the other customization options which a user typically sets and does "Save 
> for future sessions").

Why is frequency relevant to where the settings are saved?

> In the
> former case, user has no control on what this variable is set to; in the 
> latter case, user has total control.

I think the user has control in the latter case as well: it is the
user who decides to install or uninstall packages.

> Also the value stored in this variable is more of use to package.el than 
> directly to the user. The train of thought
> is that user doesn't care what this variable is set to. But a user would care 
> if delete-selection-mode is set to
> nil/t.

The user should care about these settings because she wants the same
packages to be available in future sessions.  Same as with any other
persistent customization.

> Also frequent changing of this variable value causes noise in git commits (if 
> a user is saving their config using
> git); the diff of this variable change is not very helpful as usually people 
> have lots of packages installed and a
> glance at the diff doesn't tell instantly which package was added/removed. In 
> crux, committing of custom-file
> causes non-useful commits. That brings back to the earlier point that as this 
> variable is machine-specific,
> they do not need to be in a file which a user would typically share among 
> machines. If I am used to
> delete-selection-mode on one machine, that stays true when I am using emacs 
> on my other machine too.

Again, not very different from any other customization that differs
between machines.  Users should be able to replace Custom forms with
plain Lisp code, and then they could resolve the issues with sharing
the settings across different machines and with Git easier.

I already said all of that several times, so I will now shut up,
unconvinced.