Re: [BUG] org-capture autoload bug? [9.5.2 (9.5.2-gfbff08 @ /home/ignacio/.emacs.d/elpa/org-9.5.2/)]

[Tim Cross]

Ignacio Casso <ignaciocasso@hotmail.com> writes:

> Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Ignacio, I think, you can add (require 'org-capture) inside your
>> function just before `let' and it would work almost as lazy loading.
>
> Thanks, I was already using (require 'org-capture) in my init file to
> solve this. As I said, it's not really a problem for me, I was just
> reporting it in case it was a bug. I was not sure since I don't really
> know the inner workings of autoloads and custom variables, but since
> this snippet works when org-capture is not yet loaded
>
>   (setq org-capture-templates
>          '(("d" "default" entry
>             (file+headline org-default-notes-file "Tasks")
>             "* %?")))
>   (org-capture nil "d")
>
> and this snippet also works
>
>   (let ((my-new-var 2))
>     (defcustom my-new-var 1 "New variable that did not exist before")
>     (message "%s" my-new-var)) ;; This prints 2
>   (message "%s" my-new-var) ;; This prints 1
>
> I thought that this snippet should work too when org-capture is not yet
> loaded, and that the fact that it doesn't could mean that there is a bug
> somewhere
>
>   (let ((org-capture-templates
>          '(("d" "default" entry
>             (file+headline org-default-notes-file "Tasks")
>             "* %?"))))
>     (org-capture nil "d")))
>
>
>> I have no particular opinion concerning adding autoload cookie to
>> `org-capture-templates'. Emacs has enough number of them, but Org has
>> no such custom variables.
>
> I put an autoload cookie myself and it doesn't fix it, so it's probably
> not that. It's the first time I manage autoload cookies though, so I may
> have done something wrong. I only tested that the autoload cookie worked
> by checking that before loading org-capture, org-capture-templates
> appears in the completion list for C-h v, and I can evaluate it.

While I don't know if this is a bug, it certainly doesn't seem to be
doing the right thing from an 'intuitive' point of view. I would expect
when a variable is bound to a value inside a let and a function is then
called which uses that variable, the initial let bound value should be
used and the result be the same regardless of whether org-capture has or
has not been loaded. It means there is a hidden side-effect here, which
isn't good and probably needs more analysis. If you had set the value
using setq rather than as a let form, it wouldn't be overridden when
org-capture is loaded, so why does it when it is a let binding? 

Might be worth asking a general question on emacs-devel? Stephan or Eli
can probably provide some clarification here (maybe this is somehow
related to the changes associated with the lexical binding stuff?)