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From: "Barry A. Warsaw" <bwarsaw@CNRI.Reston.VA.US>
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To: Kyle Jones <kyle_jones@wonderworks.com>
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Subject: User Customizable Variables (was Re: minibuf.el)
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>>>>> "KJ" == Kyle Jones <kyle_jones@wonderworks.com> writes:

    KJ> I agree.  What I've decided to do with VM's hairball variables
    KJ> (vm-virtual-folder-alist, vm-auto-folder-alist, and
    KJ> vm-spool-files come to mind) is write functions to modify
    KJ> them.  The function would have simple call syntax which avoids
    KJ> users having to write lists of lists of lists of...  There
    KJ> needs to be another layer on top of even this, but by the time
    KJ> I finish writing the access/modify functions I'll have a
    KJ> better idea what that layer ought to be.

I've done essentially the same with CC Mode's hairballs, and I really
should remove the `*'s from the docstrings.  I've also been a little
inconsistent with use of defconst vs. defvar.  I had a discussion a
while back with RMS about the semantics of defconst.  I'd have to go
searching some archives, but I think the upshot of it was that he's
changed the definition (w/o touching the implementation) of defconst
to include constants that the user shouldn't change.  I guess by
definition then those shouldn't have `*'s in their docstrings.

Hmm, maybe we really need to work out a consistent model of defconst,
defvar, defvar-with-*.

-Barry

