Subject: bug#5974: 23.1.95; enabling disabled cmd & saving doesn't respect `custom-file'

From: Drew Adams <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2016 16:11:43 -0700 (PDT)

> It's not a side discussion.  The `put' things are not going to move to
> `custom-file', because they have nothing to do with Custom.

Good point.  I retract my objection.

> But they might "in effect" move to `custom-file' if we change how they
> are implemented.

Actually, now that you've pointed out that they have nothing to
do with Customize (options, faces), I wonder whether where they
should go.

The point of `custom-file' is, on the one hand, to keep automatically
written Lisp code from mixing with hand-coded stuff, in ~/.emacs.

On the other hand, its point is to gather in one place only stuff
that is managed by Customize.

Typically (so far), we use other files for other automatically
written Lisp code: bookmarks, desktops, package stuff, savehist,
saveplace,...

Especially since we now have an Emacs-specific default directory
for such things, a separate file seems to make sense - not
`custom-file' (since this is not managed by Customize) but something
else.

As for the suggestion that this be handled by Customize: A priori,
I'm not too hot for that idea.  I think it has enough trouble with
options and faces. ;-)  But maybe someone has a good reason why it
should be Customize that manages these things.