Re: Emacs-CVS and abbrevs

[Stefan Monnier]

>     But other than your objection to my proposal of how to fix the problem,
>     what do you propose to fix the problem: getting apparently random
>     "save .emacs_abbrevs" prompts if you use an external package that hasn't
>     been updated to Emacs-CVS yet.
>     Or do you propose that we don't fix it ?
> 
> Fix the external packages.

I can see the point, especially since it does things right in that it will
prevent those package-provided abbrevs from being saved in the user's
.emacs_abbrevs (after it's fixed).

But I still think there's something wrong with the current behavior,
not in the fact that it asks to save .emacs_abbrevs, but in the fact that
the behavior is apparently random and that it is difficult for the user
to relate the behavior to the guilty package: the message can (and did
for me) show up at any time, not necessarily related with the use
of the package.

So I suggest that we try and keep track of where the abbrev change occurred.
For example, a behavior like:

        (setq abbrevs-changed
              (if (and load-file-name
                       ;; this might be a package that should use `system-flag'.
                       (or (null abbrevs-changed)
                           (equal abbrevs-changed  load-file-name)))
                  load-file-name
                t))

would allow us to give a better message to the user.  At least in my case
it would have pointed the finger straight at the root cause of the problem.
What do you think ?

Also we should advertize this new behavior so package maintainers
are aware of the issue.  Kind of like the minibuffer stuff in Emacs-21.1,
only less dramatic.


        Stefan