RE: Customize buttons that changeuser'scustomfileshouldaskforconfirmation

[Drew Adams]

        ... the current value is updated to the same value that is written
        to your custom file. That is not the same thing as evaluating your
        entire .emacs file, however.

    I am refering to `All'.  Clearly, individual settings should not
    involve evaluating your entire .emacs file.

"All" refers, in Customize, to all options in the current Customize buffer.
Your .emacs can involve lots of other things. Your .emacs is not currently
eval'd when you do anything in Customize, AFAIK, and it would be a mistake
to reevaluate .emacs, IMO. You are correct, however, that Save in Customize
means Set and Save - that is, those particular options listed in the current
Customize buffer are both set and saved.

        How can you save Customize settings without also setting their
        current values (today)? And, again, changing a value in your init
        file is not what is meant currently by "set"; "set" refers to
        setting the current values.

    Just by saving them:  for example, just now I changed my bold face
    ... to '(bold ((t (:background "DodgerBlue4" :foreground "Red"))))

OK. You're talking about editing _.emacs_ and saving it (correct?). Within
_Customize_, there is no way to Save without also setting, IIUC - that is
what I meant.

    However, unlike Emacs Lisp expressions saved in regular libraries,
    Emacs Lisp expressions used for customization are saved in your .emacs
    file.  That file is automatically loaded each time you start a new
    instance of Emacs.  So customized saving implies (eventual)
    evaluation.

Yes, eval of .emacs occurs upon startup (only).

    If we do not offer a `Save for the future, but not for this session'
    option for the automatic writing user interface, it might reduce
    potential confusion just a little to say `Set and Save All' and
    besides saving, set for current use as well as after the next start.

That is the current (and proposed) behavior: Save (in Customize) means set
and save. I personally think that "Save" is sufficient as the name, but I
agree that all help for the button/menu item should explicitly mention that
it both _sets_ and saves.