At 12:25 PM 10/14/00 -0400, you wrote:
>> * In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> * On the subject of "Re: ANN: JDE-2.2.5 available"
>> * Sent on Sat, 14 Oct 2000 01:28:51 +0000
>> * Honorable Paul Kinnucan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>>
>> The traditional way of customizing Emacs is to use setq forms to set
>> the values of customization variables in the Emacs initialization
>> (.emacs ) file. This method does not work for JDE customization
>> variables. To set a JDE customization variable, you must use the
>> customization buffer for a variable (see the Emacs online manual for
>> information on the customization feature).
>
>This is very unfortunate.
>
>Many old-time Emacs users never use `customize' - we consider it a
>wasteful bloat-ware. Most Emacs packages which use `customize' let us
>not to use `customize'. It would be nice if you could accommodate the
>old-timers too...
>
You may be an Emacs old-timer but you are a JDE newbie. I suggest you read
the extensive discussions of this topic in the JDE mailing list archives to
bring yourself up to speed on the reason for why things are as they are
now. Then if you have a better solution, propose it.
>Fortunately, JDE comes with the source code, so I could figure out that
>creating an empty jde-project-file-name in the current directory would
>fix my problem.
This doesn't make any sense to me. How do you create a Lisp variable in a
directory.
>An alternative is to set the variables with `setq-default' and also
>`put' their `saved-value'.
>
Suit yourself. I'd rather let Emacs write the customization Lisp for me.
>I have some more questions:
>
>1. why do you use `eval' in `jde-set-variables-init-value'? This seems
> to be unnecessary: you are evaluating strings.
>
>2. in `jde-find-project-file', you use (find ... (directory-files))
> while `file-exists-p' seems to foot the bill just fine.
>
>3. you use `mapcar' in `jde-set-variables-init-value', and you don't
> need the list it conses. why not use `dolist' or `mapc'?
>
The code of the JDE is of varying ages and is the work of many people of
varying Lisp skills and experience. Some of the code I wrote myself was
written three years ago when I was new to Lisp and thus unaware of many of
Lisp's facilities. While I recognize and blush with shame when I come
across instances of the many faux pas in my early code, I generally leave
them alone out of regard for the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"
principal and because I have more than enough to do to keep up with
people's request's for new features.
- Paul
