Re: comint.el: EMACS environment variable

[Kevin Rodgers]

Chong Yidong wrote:
> Markus Triska <address@hidden> writes:
>
> > > Why would they care what it's value is though?  I suspect it's just as
> > > common to simply check for the variable's existance, not its value.
> > Yes, that's also common (at least those programs aren't broken by the
> > change). Other programs checking for "t": tcsh, Maude, zsh. For easy
> > optional backwards compatibility, what do you think about making the
> > new behaviour depend on a variable like "emacs-environment-variable"
> > with possible values 'path (use path; default) and t (old behaviour)?
>
> I agree with this proposal.  Should the default be 'path or t?

If the proposal is adopted, the default should be 'path.  That will
encourage 3rd-party programs that rely on the current value to change,
yet allow the Emacs interface to those programs to work in the meantime
by let-binding the new variable to t.

BTW, wouldn't emacs-envvar-type be a better name for the variable?
That would be consistent with the read-envvar-name function name.
And perhaps its value should be an actual customize type, e.g. either
(const t) or (file :mustmatch t).

--
Kevin