RE: Customize buttons that change user's customfileshouldaskforconfirmation

[Drew Adams]

        <Set> "F => C", and then (sometime later) sets option Y on the same
        page, and then does <Save> "F => C,S", the effect is that the change
        to X is also saved.  This may be highly confusing to a user.

        Good point. We need to somehow make crystal clear that the
        buttons and menubar menu items apply to _each_ option in
        the buffer. Possible ways include 1) using the word "All"
        in menu and button names and 2) asking for confirmation,
        warning that _all_ options are concerned.

    It could display the list of options that will be saved,
    and ask for confirmation, much as Dired does when you operate
    on marked files.

Yes, why not.

        Clear All is not the right name for this, in any case. The term
        "Clear" commonly refers to merely emptying an edit field. We don't
        have such an operation (and we don't need it) - the closest
        operation we have is what you are calling Cancel. Cancel and
        "Clear All" will be confused.

    I'm not sure what you have in mind for this operation to do.
    Could you say?

Clear All was from Kim's message:

        The <Clear All> button first asks the user for confirmation.
        If ok it does "D => F"  (does not update C or S).
        It then prints a message
           Remember to use <Set> or <Save> to activate/save the values.

IOW, it does Get Standard.

        C => F   (Reset from Current)
        S => F   (Reset from Saved)
        D => F   (Reset from Standard)

        Using the combined Reset buttons would mean we have only Set, Save,
        and Reset.

        Any reset action should display a feedback message saying 1) that
        (all) the _edit fields_ have been reset from <source> and 2) you can
        _set_ the current values to these fields with Set.

    I wouldn't use the term "reset" for these.

Agreed. In a later mail (2/6), I proposed this (adopting Miles's suggestion
of Get):

         Set All          (F => C)
         Save All         (F => C,S)
         Get All
           Standard       (D => F)
           Saved          (S => F)
           Current        (C => F)

        1. Each button name includes "All".
           Likewise for menu-bar menu items.
        2. The "resetting" actions only fill the edit field;
           they do not set the current value.
        3. The "resetting" actions are combined in a button menu
           (pulldown list).

    I am not sure whether
    the change from S => F,C into S => F is a good idea.

Agreed. See proposal above.

        I still believe "Erase" is needed. Maybe "Erase All"? It
        should of course ask for confirmation. (It does not belong
        under "Get All".)

        By "Erase" do you mean the current Erase Customization
        functionality or
        something else? I thought that we had more or less agreed
        to separate the
        two functionalities that are mixed today in Erase Customization.

    Yes.

See my other, "New tack" message today. Instead of removing things from the
custom file to remove customizations and return to standard values, why not
just add a declaration to custom-set-variables (at the _end_ of the file)
that the standard values should be used.