Subject: bug#27350: 25.2; Make `inhibit-compacting-font-caches' customizable

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2017 18:02:53 +0300

tag 27350 wontfix
quit

> Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2017 07:33:34 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Drew Adams <[email-masked]>
> 
> Subject line says it all.  Please consider making this variable
> customizable (a defcustom).  And consider documenting it in the Emacs
> manual.
> 
> See, e.g., https://emacs.stackexchange.com/q/33510/105.

This variable is a "fire escape": it only exists because we were
unable to fix some of the situations where the slow-down happens (in
other cases changing the end-user font configuration fixed the
problem).  Ideally, it will some day go away.  Making it a defcustom
and documenting it will make removing it harder.

So no, I don't think we should do what you suggest, leaky postings on
Stackexchange notwithstanding.  (And those postings actually harm the
project, because all such problems should be reported as bugs,
allowing us to investigate as many of these problems as possible, and
hopefully helping us eventually find the culprit.  "Solving" them on
Stackexchange avoids bringing more of such problems to our attention.)