add global-real-auto-save-mode

[DivineDominion]

I'm not an experiences Emacs package developer, so a review and feedback would be much appreciated!

With the global mode enabled, one can disable real-auto-save-mode on a per-buffer or per-major-mode basis. I found this easier for my setup than enabling auto saving for every conceivable mode.

I tested it this way:

;; init.el
(require 'real-auto-save)
(setq real-auto-save-interval 10) ;; in seconds
(defun turn-on-real-auto-save () (real-auto-save-mode 1))
(defun turn-off-real-auto-save () (real-auto-save-mode -1))
(define-globalized-minor-mode global-real-auto-save-mode
  real-auto-save-mode turn-on-real-auto-save)
(global-real-auto-save-mode 1)
(add-hook 'message-mode-hook #'turn-off-real-auto-save)

Auto-saving in .txt files works, auto-saving in message drafts is disabled. Manually disabling this in a buffer via M-: (real-auto-save-mode -1) works, too, and doesn't affect the next file you visit (i.e. auto-saving is still enabled by default).

[ChillarAnand]

Any suggestions? @conao3

[conao3]

I think this is a good idea, but real-auto-save-initialize is better than turn-on-real-auto-save because turn-on-* is not well known prefix.
And turn-off-real-auto-save is not needed I think.

[DivineDominion]

Thanks for the feedback! I got the inspiration for turn-on-* and turn-off-* from existing packages. Most are not interactive, but if you hit M-: (turn-on TAB (eval-expression, then type (turn-on, then TAB to get auto-completion) you'll see quite a few packages use this. (turn-off-* is far less common, that's right)

In Magit's git-commit.el, for example, you'll find calls to (turn-on-flyspell) and (turn-on-autofill). I just picked a random package from my currently frontmost buffer's mode list.

I think we can live without these functions, but I also think they are useful API. Users can then declare

(add-hook 'message-mode-hook #'turn-off-real-auto-save)

... and don't need to create lambdas or whatever.

Please note I'm not sure if this is still considered weird. I just picked this up during the past weeks and liked the convention.

[conao3]

OK, thanks. I'm not professional too, but I follow package-lint suggestion.
Please install package-lint and see warnings.

 real-auto-save.el   104   1 error           "turn-on-real-auto-save" doesn't start with package's prefix "real-auto-save". (emacs-lisp-package)
 real-auto-save.el   104     info            All variables and subroutines might as well have a documentation string (emacs-lisp-checkdoc)
 real-auto-save.el   105   1 error           "turn-off-real-auto-save" doesn't start with package's prefix "real-auto-save". (emacs-lisp-package)
 real-auto-save.el   105     info            All variables and subroutines might as well have a documentation string (emacs-lisp-checkdoc)

So, I suggest to use real-auto-save-* prefix.
And I think, the add-hook you suggestion is not needed. Please define real-auto-save-initialize as like below.

(defun real-auto-save-initialize ()
  (when buffer-file-name (real-auto-save-mode))

[conao3]

I usually use (add-hook 'find-file-hook 'real-auto-save-mode), and it is fine I think, but the global-minor-mode you suggest is the better idea.

[DivineDominion]

Whoa that year went by fast. I addressed some of your comments @conao3 but didn't recall if you want the -turn-off function to be removed completely (then you cannot opt-out of global mode easily), and if you want -turn-on to be renamed to -initialize.

Grepping through the emacs lisp sources, I only found a handful of uses of the turn-on- prefix, notably turn-on-auto-revert-mode. In my own emacs config, I only find 22 completions for turn-on-. I have 32 matches for -initialize$, but most of these do something else than my proposed functions, like perform setup work. I found yas-initialize to be like the turn-on-convention, but it toggles the global mode (which makes more sense for YASnippets). Btw I found 5 matches for -turn-on$ suffix.

TL;DR: the '-initialize` suffix sounds like it'd be misleading.

---

I'm not a fan of the -turn-on and -turn-off suffix because it reads weird. I'm fine with removing the helpers completely and just add the global minor mode, then add the turn-off- helper in my own config for consistency and that's it :)