Re: [AUCTeX] Setting file-local list variables

[Mark Elston]

* Mark Elston wrote (on 5/20/2008 12:25 PM):
> I have been trying to set a file local variable for a LaTeX file
> I have been working on and it just doesn't seem to stick.  In
> particular I am trying to set LaTeX-verbatim-environments.  I am
> using the fancyvrb package and have developed some specific verbatim
> environments and want AucTeX to deal with them appropriately.  These
> environments are specific to the file I am working on and, so, I don't
> want to customize AucTeX to *always* recognize them since they won't
> appear in any other files.
>
> However, when I put the following in my .tex file:
>
> %%% Local Variables:
> %%% mode: latex
> %%% TeX-master: t
> %%% LaTeX-verbatim-environments: ("verbatim" "verbatim*" "CodeListing" 
> "OldCodeListing" "NewCodeListing")
> %%% End:
>
> I get a warning when loading the file that setting the variable may
> not be safe.  I hit 'y' to apply the local variables list and the file
> is loaded.  However, even though I can look at the variable and see that
> it is set appropriately, AucTeX doesn't handle these environments as
> verbatim environments.
>
> If I customize the variable then it works fine.
>
> How do I set this variable so that it applies to the file?
>
> Mark

OK.  I found the answer on my own, though I am not sure what to make
of it (thanks, google!).

Instead of setting the 'LaTeX-verbatim-environments' variable directly
I now have:

%%% eval: (eval-after-load "latex" '(progn
            (add-to-list 'LaTeX-verbatim-environments "CodeListing")
            (add-to-list 'LaTeX-verbatim-environments "OldCodeListing")
            (add-to-list 'LaTeX-verbatim-environments "NewCodeListing")
))


My question now is:  How do I know what variables have to be set
in this way rather than setting the values directly?  I could find
nothing in the manual that mentions this.

A related question is:  Why was this necesssary?  Why couldn't I
set the variable directly?

Mark