Re: Customizing an association list with defcustom to allow user modifications

On Friday, August 7th, 2026 at 1:13 PM, Heime <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Friday, August 7th, 2026 at 12:42 AM, Heime <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> >
> > I am comfortable using defcustom to define variables that hold string
> > or symbol values. However, I find it challenging to understand how to
> > use defcustom for a variable that is an alist (association list), where
> > users can modify the entries.
> >
> > For example, suppose I define an alist variable like this:
> >
> > (setq mylist (list (cons 'name "Pandu") (cons 'activation 'dual)))
> >
> > Now, I want to allow users to change the values of each entry in mylist
> > through customization. How can I set this up so that users can easily
> > modify these entries in the customization interface?  What would users
> > have to do?
> 
> Have seen customize-dirlocals which uses a widget.  I could take an
> alist whose cdr type of each element can changes according to car.

Have now coded the following

(defcustom galaxiakos-alist
  '((name . "Pandu")
    (activation . 'dual))
  "A user-customisable association list.
Users can access this variable via `M-x customize-variable' and modify
the entries directly."
  :type '(alist :key-type symbol :value-type string-or-symbol)
  :group 'galaxiakos)

But, when I do "M-x customize-variable", I do not see the value
or way to make modifications.