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To: xemacs-beta@xemacs.org
Subject: Customization
Organization: The Church of Emacs
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From: Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk>
Date: 13 Feb 1997 13:03:46 +0100
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With regard to the latest `custom' vs. `options' debate...

- Here is what I'd like to have of customization support in XEmacs:

1) A way to quickly set those options that you might want to
   change several times.  For example `case-fold-search'.

   Something like the Options menu should do this.

2) Goal oriented interactive tutorials for popular customizations.
   For example `How to Read Mail with Gnus'.

   These could be written in an extended html.  W3 already contains
   rudimentary support for setting emacs options inside html
   documents.  See 

      <URL:http://www.dina.kvl.dk/~abraham/custom/gnus.html>

   (after loading Gnus 5.4.* and w3 3.0.51+) for a demonstration.  This
   works best for options declared with `defcustom' or `defface'. 

3) A complete hierarchically organized reference to all user options.

   Custom provides this for options declared with `defcustom' or
   `defface'. 

None of the above should require any knowledge of lisp.

- The Options menu supports several types of customizations which
cannot be described with `defcustom' or `defface'.  This should
change.  Eventually, I'd like the Options menu to be generated by the
custom package

- If you are not using Gnus 5.4.*, you haven't seen the custom package
I'm talking about.  The custom package used by 5.2 is very different.

- The custom package is close to useless by itself, the main purpose
is to allow package authors to make their packages easier to
customize.  Thus, it cannot really be compared to the Options menu.

- If you are interested in the custom package, I suggest you look at
the custom home page at

	<URL:http://www.dina.kvl.dk/~abraham/custom/>

and perhaps subscribe to the mailing list, subscription instructions
are at the bottom of the page.

