Subject: 24.3.50; bad & confusing Customize `State' Menu behavior

From: "Drew Adams" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2012 12:25:12 -0800

emacs -Q
 
M-x customize-option delete-old-versions
 
Value Menu: Leave
 
State: Revert This Session's Customization

The State is now back to STANDARD, which is correct.
 
In the State menu, this item is not dimmed, but should be, since there
should be no backup value different from the original value (Ask): Set
to Backup Value.
 
Choose Set to Backup Value anyway.  The State now shows "SET for current
session only, which is incorrect (at best misleading).
 
The State menu now shows items Set to Backup Value and Revert This
Session's Customization, both of which are incorrect and misleading.
(The current value is the standard value, and we reverted to it.
 
Choose Revert This Session's Customization anyway.
 
State now says CHANGED outside Customize, which is 100% wrong.  And the
State menu shows Undo Edits, Revert This Session's Customization, and
Set to Backup Value, all of which are wrong (and confusing).
 
Choose Undo Edits anyway.  It has no visible effect - State and its menu
stay the same.  Again, confusing.
 
Choose Set to Backup Value anyway.
 
State now says SET for current session only, which is (still) wrong.
And the same menu items are available, except Undo Edits.  Choosing Set
to Backup Value again has no visible effect.  Choosing Revert This
Session's Customization has the same incorrect effect as before (adds
Undo Edits to the menu and changes State to CHANGED outside Customize.
 
This is a confusing mess.
 
Without emacs -Q it is even more confusing, with Reset to Saved added to
the mix.
 
One thing that is not clear in the behavior is that Set to Backup Value
seems sometimes to be available without Reset to Saved (even without
emacs -Q).  If you have made changes to the value that have not been
saved, then I would think that Reset to Saved would always be available
(until you choose it or you save).

In GNU Emacs 24.3.50.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600)
 of 2012-11-05 on MS-W7-DANI
Bzr revision: 110809 [email-masked]
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 5.1.2600
Configured using:
 `configure --with-gcc (4.7) --no-opt --enable-checking --cflags
 -I../../libs/libXpm-3.5.10/include -I../../libs/libXpm-3.5.10/src
 -I../../libs/libpng-1.2.37-lib/include -I../../libs/zlib-1.2.5
 -I../../libs/giflib-4.1.4-1-lib/include
 -I../../libs/jpeg-6b-4-lib/include
 -I../../libs/tiff-3.8.2-1-lib/include
 -I../../libs/libxml2-2.7.8-w32-bin/include/libxml2
 -I../../libs/gnutls-3.0.9-w32-bin/include
 -I../../libs/libiconv-1.9.2-1-lib/include'