Re: Reset buttons in Customize

[Luc Teirlinck]

Bill Wohler wrote:

   The Reset to Current has always baffled me. I *think* it means to
   change the settings to what they were before Customize was entered,
   but I'm not sure.

and:

   Ditto for the menu items. What the heck is Reset to Backup and Show
   Value Widget?

The current (recently changed) names for the State Menu items are very
misleading.  Several have very little to do with what the menu item
really does.  Here is a summary of what the items you mention do, with
my suggested more accurate names (which I already suggested earlier).

Custom can show two things that you can edit to install a new value
for a setting:

The current (evaluated) value of the setting and the saved (or
standard, if there is no saved)  _unevaluated_ Lisp expression.

You switch between the two using the State menu items whose labels
were very recently changed to "Show Lisp expression" (which shows the
latter) and "Show value widget" (which shows the former).  As I
already pointed out, "Show Lisp expression" is misleading, since it
suggests that the _current_ value will be shown as a Lisp expression,
which is false.  It should be "Show saved Lisp expression".  It is
actually saved or standard if there is no saved, but that would be
quite long and standard seems the _obvious_ alternative if there is no
saved.  "Show value widget" is cryptic.  Why not: "Show current value",
which says exactly what it does.  Note that it is only enabled if the
saved Lisp expression (as opposed to the current value) is shown.

"Reset to current value" is misleading.  That button resets the text
in the value field to _whatever_ it was before you started editing it
(current value _or_ unevaluated saved Lisp expression) and does not set
any value.  It undoes your edits.  That is exactly what it does.  Why
not say what it does: "Undo edits".

"Reset to backup value" does not really reset anything.  It sets the
current value to some backup value.  It does not change the saved
value.  I would call this: "Set to backup".  It would take too long to
explain in the menu item how the backup value is chosen, but it rather
consistently turns out to be what you would expect.  _After the release_,
it might be better to replace this menu item with a history feature
that would only affect the value shown in the buffer and would not
automatically set anything.  The current feature is very useful and
necessary to avoid accidentally loosing complex values.  So it can not
just be discarded.  But I believe that a minibuffer history style
feature would be even more useful.

Summary of proposed changes (assuming we adopt your capitalization
suggestion, on which I have no strong opinion either way):

Reset to current value  Undo Edits

Reset to backup value   Set to Backup Value

Show value widget       Show Current Value

Show Lisp expression    Show Saved Lisp Expression

Sincerely,

Luc.