Subject: Re: bug#29525: Please don't default to "--unique" mode for Okular

From: Arash Esbati <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 03 Dec 2017 23:15:20 +0100

Reuben Thomas <[email-masked]> writes:

> On 1 December 2017 at 21:49, Arash Esbati <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>> it is also the default for Yap, dviout, SumatraPDF.  And this is the
>> problem with defaults: Never 100% satisfied customers.
>
> The problem in this case is not the default per se (though it is hard to
> work out how to configure it: the customize interface for this setting is
> overcomplicated), it is that the default is different for different
> previewers. The default should (as far as possible) be the same, so that
> changing viewers does not change the behaviour.

I agree with this, in this case we should fix this in order to get a
consistent behavior.  I have a preference for the single instance version.

> This is not exactly true: once Okular (or Evince) has been spawned, there
> is no need to run the View command again: both viewers auto-reload.

I don't Okular or Evince, so I can't tell.

> For the Customize interface, I'm not sure what to suggest. The current
> interface is far too complicated, but if it were made simpler (e.g. to have
> a "single instance" toggle) then it would not be so general. But as it
> stands it seems very hard to use without reading the source code (which
> negates the point of customize).

Personally, I think you're touching some darker corners of AUCTeX here.
If you want more complicated stuff, have a look at `TeX-command-list' or
`TeX-expand-list'.  Sometimes it's not easy to reduce complexity to a
minimum.  But again, I might be wrong -- patches are welcome.

> Arash, you mention editing .emacs; this is a shame. It's not the 1990s any
> more: I don't even have a .emacs file, I have .emacs.d/init.el;

>From Emacs manual:

,----[ 51.4 The Emacs Initialization File [1] ]
| When Emacs is started, it normally tries to load a Lisp program from an
| initialization file, or init file for short.  This file, if it exists,
| specifies how to initialize Emacs for you.  Emacs looks for your init
| file using the filenames ~/.emacs, ~/.emacs.el, or ~/.emacs.d/init.el;
| you can choose to use any one of these three names (see Find Init).
`----

I don't see it saying that .emacs is obsolete or should be avoided.

> but more to the point, the default should be to say "customize foo to
> bar". To advise editing .emacs is either a) confusing, b) an admission
> that Customization isn't manageable, or c) both.

I just wanted to show you the direction; please use any interface you're
used to or like to use.

Best, Arash

Footnotes: 
[1]  https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Init-File.html