Persistent enabling via customize interface does not seem to work

Fairly recent (nearly 26.1) version of emacs built from git:

GNU Emacs 27.0.50 (build 2, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.24.31) of 2017-10-16

[davidshepherd7]

From peeking at your config on github it looks like you are autoloading frames-only-mode, which (AFAIK) will only load it when the function frames-only-mode is called. So it's possible that custom-set-variables doesn't trigger the autoload.

I can only reproduce the issue with a similar setup:

(add-to-list 'load-path "/home/david/code/frames-only-mode/")
(autoload #'frames-only-mode "frames-only-mode" nil t)
(custom-set-variables '(frames-only-mode t))

if I replace the autoload with (require 'frames-only-mode) then it works.

Do you think that's the problem? I'm not familiar with using custom variables to turn on modes.

On Thu, Dec 28, 2017 at 7:05 AM, David Shepherd ***@***.***> wrote: From peeking at your config on github it looks like you are autoloading frames-only-mode, which (AFAIK) will only load it when the function frames-only-mode is called. So it's possible that custom-set-variables doesn't trigger the autoload.

​I am impressed that you decided to locate my config. Thanks for that extra effort. I can only reproduce the issue with a similar setup:

(add-to-list 'load-path "/home/david/code/frames-only-mode/") (autoload #'frames-only-mode "frames-only-mode" nil t) (custom-set-variables '(frames-only-mode t)) if I replace the autoload with (require 'frames-only-mode) then it works. Do you think that's the problem? I'm not familiar with using custom variables to turn on modes.

​I can indeed get your package to work. That said there clearly were various things not quite right about it ​how it interacted with define-minor-mode, autoloading and the custom framework. My first clue was that in its current form your package creates to customization groups: frame-only and frame-only-mode. The frame-only group seemed to be created in define-minor-mode by stripping the trailing '-mode' from the first argument (frames-only-mode). That group contained a single entry: frames-only-mode. The description was the misleading default text supplied by define-minor-mode: Non-nil if Frames-Only mode is enabled. See the ‘frames-only-mode’ command for a description of this minor mode. Setting this variable directly does not take effect; either customize it (see the info node ‘Easy Customization’) or call the function ‘frames-only-mode’. describe-variable on frames-only-mode returned the same text along with the additionally erroneous assertion: You can customize this variable. After comparing your code with other minor modes I have concluded that there is a pervasive convention that a feature and the mode that controls it typically do _not_ share the same symbol. That is feature XYZ is enabled and disabled by the function XYZ-mode. Further the autoload convention is that the name of a file providing feature XYZ is XYZ.el. Based on those observations I modified your frames-only-mode.el to use the string 'frames-only-mode' only when referring specifically to the feature control function or the variable declared by define-minor-mode to record the current state of the feature. In all other instances I replaced 'frames-only-mode' with 'frames-only'. I separated and corrected the documentation of the frames-only-mode function and the identically named variable. Finally I renamed frames-only-mode.el to frames-only.el. Following those changes I have only a one customize group (frames-only) containing the following options: frames-only-configuration-variables frames-only-kill-frame-when-buffer-killed-buffer-list frames-only-reopen-frames-from-hidden-x11-virtual-desktops frames-only-use-window-functions frames-only-use-windows-for-completion" (Note: no frames-only-mode option.) Here is the function documentation: frames-only-mode is an interactive autoloaded compiled Lisp function in ‘frames-only.el’. (frames-only-mode &optional ARG) Use frames instead of emacs windows (e.g. for tiling window managers). The following variables can be set or customized to configure behavior: frames-only-configuration-variables frames-only-kill-frame-when-buffer-killed-buffer-list frames-only-reopen-frames-from-hidden-x11-virtual-desktops frames-only-use-window-functions frames-only-use-windows-for-completion And here is the variable documentation: frames-only-mode is a variable defined in ‘frames-only.el’. Its value is t Documentation: Non-nil if frames-only-mode is enabled. See the ‘frames-only-mode’ command for a description of this minor mode. Setting this variable directly or via customization has no effect. The only effective way to modify it is to call ‘frames-only-mode’. With that this el-get recipe now works as expected: (:name frames-only :description "Make emacs play nicely with tiling window managers by setting it up to use frames rather than windows" ;; :type github ;; :pkgname "davidshepherd7/frames-only-mode" :type http :url "file://localhost/home/jyates/emacs/frames-only.el" :after (frames-only-mode t) :features frames-only) Because I renamed your file I am attaching my modified version rather than suggesting a github pull request. Feel free to do with my edits as you choose. I did nothing truly creative in these edits so no need to give me credit if you choose to keep any of them. Thanks for the nice package, /john