[comp.emacs] Volunteers wanted to test smart set-variable routines

brennan@rtp.dg.com (Dave Brennan) (12/16/90)

I'm constantly reminded by the that people I constantly remind to use Emacs
that Emacs needs to be more user friendly.  (*sarcasam* Like vi is!) One
idea which came to me recently (in a vision) was to have the set-variable
function be a little smarter about the variables it is sets.  I finally got
around to writing the Elisp tonight and am looking for volunteers to test
what I currently have (and improvements as they happen) before I unleash it
on the world.

Let me know if you're interested.

                                          |\
Dave Brennan                              | \____oo_     brennan@rtp.dg.com
=========================================((__|  /___>    ...rti!dg-rtp!brennan
User Interfaces, Data General                | //        daveb@rpitsmts.bitnet
Research Triangle Park, NC                   |//         Phone: (919) 248-6330

brennan@rtp.dg.com (Dave Brennan) (12/17/90)

Since my previous post was, uh, a tad bit vague, here's some more info:

Variables can be assigned a get-value function or a type (which have 
get-value functions) which set-variable will call to get the new value of 
the variable instead of just using eval-minibuffer.  (Which is what the
default set-variable uses.)

So if a variable is supposed to contain a filename, it can be assigned the 
filename type and a get filename function can be assigned to the filename 
type.  This is supposed to make set-variable better because the
get-value functions make it easier to input the new value (and might also
make sure the value is valid).

I would have posted it, but I still want to make improvements, and I want
to get the bugs out first.
                                          |\
Dave Brennan                              | \____oo_     brennan@rtp.dg.com
=========================================((__|  /___>    ...rti!dg-rtp!brennan
User Interfaces, Data General                | //        daveb@rpitsmts.bitnet
Research Triangle Park, NC                   |//         Phone: (919) 248-6330