Re: Documentation for custom-file - is not (load custom-file) needed?

[Luc Teirlinck]

It does not appear to me that your reply addresses the following
argument I made previously:

   On second thought, I start doubting the utility of the feature you are
   proposing.  One of the main reasons to have a custom file is to have
   different custom files for different versions of Emacs.  Those
   versions share .emacs.  So Custom should not write anything into
   .emacs of the type you are proposing, since the custom file usually is
   version dependent and .emacs is version independent.

   If Custom is to write anything in .emacs, it should allow the user to
   specify different custom files for different ranges of Emacs versions
   and write a `cond' form into .emacs of the type below.  That might be
   useful, but I believe we should wait with that until after the release.

   (cond ((< emacs-major-version 21)
          (load "~/.custom-20.el"))
         ((< emacs-minor-version 4)
          (load "~/.custom-21.el"))
         (t
          (load "~/.custom-21.4.el")))

Note that when the user would choose the special option to set
`custom-file' according to the Emacs version (maybe using an alist),
then he would imply with that choice that he wanted Custom to edit his
.emacs, so we would not have to ask any questions, which simplifies
things.  If the user wanted only one Custom file , he could still use
the feature by using an alist with only one element (".custom" . t),
or whatever.

Concretely, I was thinking of adding a third element to the current choice:

:type '(choice (const :tag "Your Emacs init file" nil) file)

That third element might be of type alist and mean the above.

The details need to be thought out carefully.  It might be better to
wait till after the release, unless it would turn out to be easy,
which maybe it could be.

Sincerely,

Luc.