What is the difference between setq and set-variable in emacs lisp. When should I use setq and when should I set-variable.
What is the difference between setq and set-variable in emacs lisp. When should I
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What is the difference between setq and set-variable in emacs lisp. When should I use setq and when should I set-variable.
set-variableis an interactive command, meaning that you can type M-x set-variable RET to be interactively prompted for a variable name and value.setqis not an interactive command, meaning it’s only suitable for writing in Emacs Lisp code. Personally, I never useset-variablein my Lisp code, only interactively, when I want to give a value to a variable that has an immediate effect on my text editing, such as (for example) settingindent-tabs-modetotornil.Another difference is that
setqcan set multiple variables at once. For example, in my .emacs file on OS X I have:set-variablecan’t do that.