Re: customize-mark-as-set for M-x foo-mode

[Stefan Monnier]

>     I see that all the minor-mode-like things in the menu-bar
>     do (customize-mark-as-set 'foo).  I also saw Per's comment
>     that this should only be done when the command is executed
>     interactively.
> 
>     Is there any reason why it's only executed when run from the
>     menu-bar rather than from M-x ?
> 
> It might be the right thing to do, and I was thinking about it,
> but it calls for a lot of thought.
> 
> For one thing, there are only a few modes you can control with the
> menu bar, but there are dozens, maybe hundreds, you can control
> with commands.  Should all of them update your .emacs file?
> Maybe they should, but that is a lot of change.

AFAIK customize-mark-as-set does not itself update the .emacs file.
It just marks the variable as "changed by customize" rather
than "changed by some external thingy".  It might indeed cause the
variable to be saved later on if you custom-save-all.  I don't know
how important that is.

> Users have written plenty of such minor mode commands.

Actually very few of them use `define-minor-mode' and even fewer
of them use `:global t'.  But the point of the change is indeed
to make it apply to many more places, so I don't want to minimize
its impact.

> Maybe it would be better if none of these commands updated .emacs
> itself, and instead there were another command in the Options menu to
> save the options that you can (or that you have) set with the Options
> menu.

I don't understand.  It's already the current behavior AFAIU.


        Stefan