Re: make-variable-frame-local in XEmacs available or something similar?

Jerry> Now I add an instantiator for that frame: Jerry> (set-specifier my-frame-local-var t (selected-frame)) Jerry> my-frame-local-var => #<generic-specifier global=(#<x-frame Jerry> "emacs" 0xf21> . t) 0x19df> Jerry> What's going on here? The default of nil has disappeared! Jerry> Well, that must mean that I did something wrong, sjt> Something is badly broken here (XEmacs 21.4.12 and 21.5.16), sjt> because I can't get that specifier to accept a frame spec, sjt> either. Reconfirmed. Jerry> Yet we've all had trouble figuring out how to do something Jerry> simple and fundamental with specifiers. That says Jerry> something very unflattering about the specifier Jerry> documentation. sjt> It looks to me like generic specifiers are just plain broken, sjt> as I can't even get `add-spec-list-to-specifier' to do what I sjt> expect it to do. This is true for both 21.4.12 and 21.5.16 sjt> (+ some updates). I still don't know exactly what's going wrong, but I'll offer the following observations as workarounds. 1. The set-specifier implementation is broken, at least for generic specifiers. IMHO the API design is broken, since it accepts all of: instantiators, lists of instantiators, and spec-lists (not to mention other stuff), but these are hard to distinguish for both generic specifiers and toolbar specifiers (at least), which accept lists as instantiators. Use `add-spec-to-specifier', which in limited testing seems to be OK, and whose API seems to be identical to the principal variant of set-specifier. `add-spec-list-to-specifier' _is_ quite confusing and hard to use; practical use pretty much requires backquote notation which is basically the equivalent of "double diamonds" on the ski slopes. I get the feeling it's probably only really useful in an idiom like (defvar my-saved-specs) (setq my-saved-specs (specifier-spec-list some-specifier)) ;; work with the specifier ;; restore saved specs (remove-specifier some-specifier 'all) (add-spec-list-to-specifier some-specifier my-saved-specs) 2. The print-internal-object function for generic specifiers works differently than those for images, etc. It seems to print _only_ the global spec; locale-specific specs are hidden. You must use `specifier-spec-list' (or the convenience API `specifier-specs') to get the mapping. I'll see about updating the docs later today or tomorrow. -- Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp University of Tsukuba Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN Ask not how you can "do" free software business; ask what your business can "do for" free software.