Questions about 21.5.8

Hi Y'll, Complete configuration probably too complex to post here, but available upon request: NetBSD 1.6, gcc 2.95.3, i386, XFree 4.2.xx * Using the customize buffers (only!), I change some variables. It really does not matter which, or too complicated to tell. I save init.el and custom.el, exit and re-start xemacs. When it re-starts the faces will all be screwed up, colors will be all wrong, etc. Sometimes the cure is to try again. Sometimes it is to revert to a different version of custom.el (simpler or more complex), and sometimes it is to exit the Xserver and start all over again. * Most of the time, when this happens, xemacs puts Xserver event errors (bad font map, or bad colors) on stderr. Sometimes it just says ``xemacs: NL NL NL NL NL''. * Some events will trigger beeps (or even without beeps). however, the 'backspace deletes selection' feature reverts behavior to 'backspace deletes one char'. A good way to trigger this behavior: o Set blink rate to 0.1 o Set paren matching blink count to 10000 o Put the point to the right of a closing paren What you will see is the parens blinking erratically, even after the point moved, and then 'backspace deletes selection' reverts to the default behavior. The control variable is still at the correct value. Just the behavior changes unannouncingly. * While idle, the echo area (minibuffer?) will display an error message about some variable definition being nil and invalid argument. For example: ``number-char-or-mark-p nil - Invalid arg'' * Security Problem with backup files; There is a feature where files in /a (say /a/b/c/d.e) can be saved in /x/a!b!c!d.e The problem is that /x will share backup files for arbitrary collection of files, (not necessarily by the same user), and the permissions on /x and files created in /x are not restrictive. This is not the case with auto-save which applies 700 permissions to files in the directory. * I would much rather see /x/a/b/c/d.e, which is much more easily controlled on those operating systems that allow subdirectories :-) * In the customizing frames, it is hard to guess (for the slow ones, like me) which option goes with which variables. Sometimes the variable names can reveal it, but these are not always visible, nor revealing. * How does one cause the GUI to go GDK/GTK ? I see many lisp files to do with it, but where is the switch? You see, I am not in enough trouble already :-) * How does one convince xemacs to look in ~/.xemacs for `required packages? For example, I added the ctypes package. I finally got it to be called, but it could not be found until I put it (ctypes.el) in /usr/local/lib/xemacs-21.5.8/lisp/ctypes.el Generally, it is an improvement over XEmacs 20.4, the last version (until now) where I managed to get highlight cut to work. I wish I could submit patches rather than complaints, but my lisp skills are non-existing. I could post my combined configuration which looks good to my aging eyes. Thanx for a great editor/processor/debugger/mail/web/toaster/oven/.... Simon