Subject: bug#3136: 23.0.92; Customized variables include state string

From: Cameron Horsburgh <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:12:35 +1000

On Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 12:16:17AM -0400, Chong Yidong wrote:
> > When I change a string variable using the customize interface, the
> > line after the entry point for the string is included in the
> > string. So, customising the variable 'twitter-username' to 'fred' leads
> > to:
> >
> > ,----
> > | 
> > |  '(twitter-username "fred
> > |    [State]: EDITED, shown value does not take effect until you set or
> > |    save it.")
> > | 
> > `----
> >
> > This behaviour has occurred for variables in several modes I have
> > tried to customise and is readily reproducible.
> 
> I can't reproduce this.  Please provide a precise recipe for reproducing
> this, starting with `emacs -Q'.
> 

Thanks for your reply. Here's a blow by blow reproduction of trying
this with emacs -Q.

I move my existing .emacs out of the way, stop all running emacs
processes and call emacs -Q. Then I run M-x customize-variable. I need
to choose one that can be set to a string but has no initial value,
because I can change existing values without the problem behaviour
occurring. A good candidate is fill-prefix:

M-x customize-variable fill-prefix

I choose the option to set the variable to a string. I am given an
area to type my customisation. However, the input area also appears to
include the line immediately following, which refers to the state of
the variable. I enter a string (say, NonsenseString) into the
appropriate place and save with C-x C-s.

Then I look at my .emacs file:

C-x C-f ~/.emacs 

and I find:

,----
| 
| (custom-set-variables
|   ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom.
|   ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
|   ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
|   ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
|  '(fill-prefix "NonsenseString
|    State: EDITED, shown value does not take effect until you set or save it."))
| (custom-set-faces
|   ;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom.
|   ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
|   ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
|   ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
|  )
| 
`----

I should also add that I have been able to follow this recipe in an
xterm and in the GTK GUI version of emacs. Thanks for your time in
helping get to the bottom of this!

-- 

Cameron Horsburgh

Blog: http://spiritcry.wordpress.com/