Re: [RFC] Change some defcustoms into defcont

[Carsten Dominik <drostekirsten@gmail.com>]

On Oct 22, 2013, at 11:52 AM, Nicolas Goaziou <n.goaziou@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
>> You also said things like
>> 
>>> That's exactly the point of the defconst: you can still modify the
>>> variable, but it sends a strong message to the user. Also, it's not
>>> about deprecation: code base should still rely on these variables.
>> 
>> so maybe I picked one interpretation over the other.
> 
> I don't see any contradiction. You can modify a defconst, but the strong
> message is "you are not supposed to do that". I didn't suggest modifying
> these variables was expected. Anyway, I acknowledge I wasn't very clear.
> 
>> Yes, sorry. By "nothing" I mean nothing we cannot achieve with
>> documentation and a :set method.
> 
> This will not fix the bug.

Hi Nicolas,

can you remind me what the bug was?  The taskjuggler issue?


> 
>> Since we will still rely on the variables, the advantage for
>> maintenance is something I do not see.
> 
> As a developer, you have to keep in mind that the string might be
> changed. Sometimes, it's easy to forget you cannot hardcode it, e.g.
> when writing a search regexp. I have done a similar mistake in
> ox-taskjuggler.el, where I expect the effort property to be named
> ":EFFORT:". More things to remember, more potential bugs, more
> maintenance efforts.
> 
>> Cache friendliness I see, but I would think that if someone changes
>> these variables, they will not keep changing them.
> 
> Of course. I shouldn't have talked about cache since it makes me sound
> like a lazy person. I can work around the cache problem.
> 
> Again my main concern was to move to a proper, Emacs-independent,
> /minimal/ core syntax, i.e., to define the "Org format". For example, at
> the moment, external tools cannot rely on "SCHEDULED:" string to write
> even a basic Org file, because "SCHEDULED:" doesn't clearly belong to
> the syntax and, therefore, might be incompatible with some
> configurations.

Yes, as I said, I do see all these problems, but I also feel the responsibility
to break as few as possible existing configurations.

If you want, I can take a shot at documenting this properly.

- Carsten

> 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> -- 
> Nicolas Goaziou