address@hidden: customize-set-variable does not ask user for value or say that it changed value]

[Richard Stallman]

Would someone please DTRT and ack?
The current behavior is certainly bad.
There is a question about what is the best thing to do;
please do what seems reasonable.


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From: "Drew Adams" <address@hidden>
To: "Bug-Gnu-Emacs" <address@hidden>
Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2007 13:50:45 -0800
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Subject: customize-set-variable does not ask user for value or say that it
        changed value

emacs -Q

Evaluate this:

(defcustom toto 'something-else
  "toto"
  :type '(choice (const :tag "foo" foo)
                 (const :tag "bar" bar)))

M-x customize-set-variable RET toto RET

That correctly asks the user to choose `foo' or `bar'. Note, however,
that the initial value does not correspond to the :type - there is a
type mismatch.

Now, change `something-else' to `foo' and try again

(defcustom toto 'foo
  "toto"
  :type '(choice (const :tag "foo" foo)
                 (const :tag "bar" bar)))

M-x customize-set-variable RET toto RET

`customize-set-variable' ends silently without prompting user to
choose a value and without saying that the value was changed.

It could be argued that this is correct - the value is toggled to
`bar', but it's not obvious that the user wants that. More
importantly, if this is the intended behavior (a feature, not a bug),
then there should at least be some feedback for the user: a
confirmation that the value was in fact changed to `bar'.


In GNU Emacs 22.1.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600)
 of 2007-06-02 on RELEASE
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 5.1.2600
configured using `configure --with-gcc (3.4) --cflags -Ic:/gnuwin32/include'
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