Re: [O] [RFC] Change some defcustoms into defcont

[Nicolas Goaziou]

Hello,

> You also said things like
>
>> That's exactly the point of the defconst: you can still modify the
>> variable, but it sends a strong message to the user. Also, it's not
>> about deprecation: code base should still rely on these variables.
>
> so maybe I picked one interpretation over the other.

I don't see any contradiction. You can modify a defconst, but the strong
message is "you are not supposed to do that". I didn't suggest modifying
these variables was expected. Anyway, I acknowledge I wasn't very clear.

> Yes, sorry. By "nothing" I mean nothing we cannot achieve with
> documentation and a :set method.

This will not fix the bug.

> Since we will still rely on the variables, the advantage for
> maintenance is something I do not see.

As a developer, you have to keep in mind that the string might be
changed. Sometimes, it's easy to forget you cannot hardcode it, e.g.
when writing a search regexp. I have done a similar mistake in
ox-taskjuggler.el, where I expect the effort property to be named
":EFFORT:". More things to remember, more potential bugs, more
maintenance efforts.

> Cache friendliness I see, but I would think that if someone changes
> these variables, they will not keep changing them.

Of course. I shouldn't have talked about cache since it makes me sound
like a lazy person. I can work around the cache problem.

Again my main concern was to move to a proper, Emacs-independent,
/minimal/ core syntax, i.e., to define the "Org format". For example, at
the moment, external tools cannot rely on "SCHEDULED:" string to write
even a basic Org file, because "SCHEDULED:" doesn't clearly belong to
the syntax and, therefore, might be incompatible with some
configurations.


Regards,

-- 
Nicolas Goaziou