Reset buttons in Customize (Was: Bug, probably related to Custom Themes.)

[Chong Yidong]

I did a little more thinking about the Customize interface.  The
question of which button does what is rather poorly thought out.  As
evidence of this, the "Reset to Saved" buttons apparently managed to
confuse both Richard and myself.

Richard put in the y-or-n-p message "Update buffer text to show all
saved settings?".  The mistake is that "Reset to current" also sets
the *current* values of the customize items to their *saved* values,
even if they are different.

But this is an easy mistake to make, because it's not clear that
"Reset to Saved" would have this effect -- unless you try it out.

I've fixed that message, but I think it is better to root out the
confusion.  I suggest changing custom-reset-current and
custom-reset-saved to *really* become "Show Current Value" and "Show
Saved Value" (and custom-reset-standard to "Show Standard Value").
That is, the buttons only change the values shown in the widgets,
without setting them.  The user explicitly calls "Set for Current
Session" or "Save for Future Sessions" to do what he wants, which
reduces the risk of confusion.

However, an even better simplification is what I previously suggested:
do away with the concept of "set for current session", and make
Customize save automatically.  This eliminates the above confusion
entirely, because the current value is always the saved value, as long
as you stick to Customize.  (And even external changes would be easy
to handle.)

To see how non-standard the "set for current session" concept is, run
Firefox go to Edit->Preferences.  Do you see any "set for current
session only" button?  There isn't one -- nor in the Gnome control
center, or the preferences of every other program around.

Customize is supposed to be something that ordinary users can use.