sdl@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Litvintchouk) (05/14/88)
We would like to have a *site wide* mode hook for each of the common
GNU Emacs modes, as well as allowing the user to write his own
personal mode hooks.
Specifically, at our company, we have a menu system which activates a
mode-specific Suntools popup menu for each GNU Emacs mode. (We may
soon ditch it in favor of X windows/menus, but the principle is the
same.) The problem is, how to invoke such mode-specific functions for
all users at our site? Consider mail-mode for example:
-- If we set the standard mode hooks (e.g. mail-mode-hook) to do
site-wide things for everyone at our company (in default.el,
say), then this will deprive users of the ability to write
their own mail-mode-hook to do their own personal customizations.
-- If we insist that each user write their own mail-mode-hook to
invoke the site-wide stuff, then enforcement of conventions
is impossible, as the site-wide stuff may change.
-- If we physically modify the mail-mode function to add a second
hook; for example, in the "defun mail-mode," add:
(run-hooks 'corporate-mail-mode-hook 'mail-mode-hook)
then every time that a new release of GNU Emacs becomes
available, we will need to modify the newly released
version of the mail-mode function to put back this site-wide hook.
I don't see any good solution to this problem. It's beginning to look
to me that each GNU Emacs mode needs to have at least *two* hooks for
each mode: one to run site-wide customizations, followed by one to
run user's personal customizations. This is especially true if one of
the site-wide customizations is to invoke menus from a standard window
system, such as Suntools or X, for which you really do want to enforce
some company-wide conventions.
Comments?
Steven Litvintchouk
MITRE Corporation
Burlington Road
Bedford, MA 01730
(617)271-7753
ARPA: sdl@mitre-bedford.arpa
UUCP: ...{cbosgd,decvax,genrad,ll-xn,mit-eddie,philabs,utzoo}!linus!sdl
"Those who will be able to conquer software will be able to
conquer the world." -- Tadahiro Sekimoto, president, NEC Corp.wolfgang@mgm.mit.edu (Wolfgang Rupprecht) (05/14/88)
>We would like to have a *site wide* mode hook for each of the common >GNU Emacs modes, as well as allowing the user to write his own >personal mode hooks. [...] It's beginning to look to me that each >GNU Emacs mode needs to have at least *two* hooks for each mode: one >to run site-wide customizations, followed by one to run user's >personal customizations. The -mode-hook variables can *either* conatain a SINGLE function to call, or a LIST of functions to call (in sequence). One can always append yet another function to the mode-hook. --- Wolfgang Rupprecht ARPA: wolfgang@mgm.mit.edu (IP 18.82.0.114) TEL: (617) 267-4365 UUCP: mit-eddie!mgm.mit.edu!wolfgang
rlk@think.com (Robert Krawitz) (05/15/88)
In article <8805132121.AA00704@mitre-bedford.ARPA>, sdl@mitre-bedford (Litvintchouk) writes:
] -- If we set the standard mode hooks (e.g. mail-mode-hook) to do
] site-wide things for everyone at our company (in default.el,
] say), then this will deprive users of the ability to write
] their own mail-mode-hook to do their own personal customizations.
No, either they can set inhibit-default-init in their .emacs file or
you can write the mail-mode-hook to first run your customizations,
then theirs. For example,
(setq mail-mode-hook (list 'progn system-mail-mode-hook mail-mode-hook))
] -- If we insist that each user write their own mail-mode-hook to
] invoke the site-wide stuff, then enforcement of conventions
] is impossible, as the site-wide stuff may change.
Also put quite a burden on the user...
]I don't see any good solution to this problem. It's beginning to look
]to me that each GNU Emacs mode needs to have at least *two* hooks for
]each mode: one to run site-wide customizations, followed by one to
]run user's personal customizations. This is especially true if one of
]the site-wide customizations is to invoke menus from a standard window
]system, such as Suntools or X, for which you really do want to enforce
]some company-wide conventions.
Well, the only time you need two hooks is if you want to "mix" two
modes. For example, mail-mode runs text-mode-hook and mail-mode-hook
since mail mode is a small enhancement of text mode. In any case,
menus seem to be a particularly bad example, since those are normally
personal preference type items.
--
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