Re: Reset buttons in Customize

[Chong Yidong]

> Why does it surprise you that a button that says "Reset to Saved"
> actually resets to saved?

Read my post again.  The question is whether "Reset" means to make the
saved value take effect in the Emacs session, or only display it in
the Customize buffer widgets without affecting the current value.  It
is not a priori clear which meaning it has (in fact, my first guess
would be the latter).

>    I suggest changing custom-reset-current and
>    custom-reset-saved to *really* become "Show Current Value" and "Show
>    Saved Value" (and custom-reset-2standard to "Show Standard Value").
>    That is, the buttons only change the values shown in the widgets,
>    without setting them.  The user explicitly calls "Set for Current
>    Session" or "Save for Future Sessions" to do what he wants, which
>    reduces the risk of confusion.
>
> That would mean two new whole buffer buttons and two new items in the
> State menu.

Nope -- the point is to *replace* the "reset to *" buttons, so there
will be no change in the number of buttons.

>    However, an even better simplification is what I previously suggested:
>    do away with the concept of "set for current session", and make
>    Customize save automatically.
>
> I believe that many Custom users often use these buttons.  I certainly
> do.

It's hard to judge this, especially if you want to take into account
the number of users who don't use Customize because it is too
confusing.  Even in the worst case scenario, you can reset to the
standard value and start again.

> I believe that the changes you suggest are a bad idea.  It is
> _certainly_ a very bad idea to suggest these radical changes to
> Custom supposedly "shortly" before a release.

These do not entail very large changes to Custom internals.  Anyway,
other issues are holding the release.