bug#61552: Feature request: Add variable Man-prefer-synchronous-call

[Sebastian Tennant]

Hello Robert,

Quoth Robert Pluim <rpluim@gmail.com>
on Tue, 21 Feb 2023 11:44:14 +0100:
> […]
>> * lisp/man.el (Man-getpage-in-background): Only call
>> #'start-process when 'make-process satisfies #'fboundp AND
>> Man-prefer-synchronous-call is bound to nil
>
> Your commit message should indicate that youʼve added a new
> defcustom

How about this:

 * lisp/man.el (Man-getpage-in-background): Add new defcustom
 Man-prefer-synchronous-call and only call #'start-process when
 'make-process satisfies #'fboundp AND Man-prefer-synchronous-call is
 bound to nil.

> and you should announce it in etc/NEWS

Rightio.  Will do.

> (and add a description to the manual, if that makes sense)

Sure.  I didn't think reading manpages would have an entry in the
manual but, sure enough, it does:

 (info "(emacs) Man Page")

I shall edit doc/emacs/programs.texi accordingly.

> […]
>> (defcustom Man-prefer-synchronous-call nil
>>   "Non-nil means always call the Un*x man command synchronously,
>>     rather than asynchronously, which is the default behaviour."
>
> The first line should be a complete sentence. Something like
>
>  "Whether to call the Un*x 'manʼ command synchronously."

How about this:

 "Control whether the Un*x 'man' command is called synchronously or
  asynchronously.  (Asynchronous is the default)."

> […]
>> :type 'boolean
>> :group 'man)
>
> This needs a :version tag

Noted.