RE: custom-themes BAD?

[Drew Adams]

> > All the packages should be using font-lock-* faces as far as
> > possible.  Then the themes can all set the same set of faces
> > much more easily.
> 
> Better yet, packages should define their own faces but use the :inherit
> property to derive them from Emacs' standard faces. That way, users can
> customize faces in some mode/package and use the default ones in others,
> if they prefer.

Exactly.  And it's not just "better *yet*", as if the first
suggestion itself represented some improvement but not the
best improvement.  The first approach is generally misguided, IMO.

It is simply not the case that "all packages should be using
font-lock-* faces as far as possible."  That is bad advice, IMO.
Package designers should use their heads, keeping the package users
foremost in mind.

I also wonder about this part:

> > Then the themes can all set the same set of faces much more
> > easily.

Why should I care how easy it is for "themes to set" the same
set of faces?  What I care about is how easy it is for users
to customize a set of faces.  And for users of themes to control
them.

Now if it is the case that custom themes are "BAD", in that there
is no easy way to customize a set of faces across multiple
themes, then that would be something missing in the design of
custom themes.  That would not surprise me, but I'm no expert on
custom themes.