Subject: bug#14348: 24.3.50; `custom-magic-alist': Bad & missing handling of `themed'

From: "Drew Adams" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 4 May 2013 08:44:10 -0700

The value `themed' was added as a possibility for `custom-magic-alist'.
But this seems to have been done only partially and wrongly.
 
1. When `themed' is the value, the only accompanying text says only
this: "THEMED."  That tells you nothing about what the state means.
 
2. When a Customize group is involved, the accompanying text instead
says only this: "visible group members are all at standard values."
 
Is that correct?  That text seems to have simply been copy+pasted from
the text for value `standard'.  Doesn't seem correct to me.
 
3. But I don't know what value `themed' means, so I cannot suggest a
correction.  Searching for `themed' in the file, I see `custom-themed',
whose doc string says it is a face used when the customize item has been
set by a theme.  So perhaps `themed' as a state value means that the
item has been set by a theme?  Just a guess.  But what does it mean to
have been set by a theme?  Is that something that the user did in
Customize, or is it something that was done outside of Customize?
 
4. The `custom-magic-alist' doc string was never updated, to reflect the
addition of the possible value `themed'.  It details what each value
means - except for `themed'.
 
In sum, this new value was added without doing the work necessary to let
users know WTF it is for.  Please make clear what the state means,
including what it indicates wrt how the value was set/changed/defined.

In GNU Emacs 24.3.50.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600)
 of 2013-04-26 on ODIEONE
Bzr revision: 112399 [email-masked]
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 5.1.2600
Configured using:
 `configure --with-gcc (4.7) --no-opt --enable-checking --cflags
 -IC:/Devel/emacs/build/include --ldflags -LC:/Devel/emacs/build/lib'