Tips for Defining Variables Robustly

When defining and initializing a variable that holds a complicated value (such as a keymap with bindings in it), it's best to put the entire computation of the value into the defvar, like this:

(defvar my-mode-map
  (let ((map (make-sparse-keymap)))
    (define-key map "\C-c\C-a" 'my-command)
    ...
    map)
  docstring)

This method has several benefits. First, if the user quits while loading the file, the variable is either still uninitialized or initialized properly, never in-between. If it is still uninitialized, reloading the file will initialize it properly. Second, reloading the file once the variable is initialized will not alter it; that is important if the user has run hooks to alter part of the contents (such as, to rebind keys). Third, evaluating the defvar form with C-M-x will reinitialize the map completely.

Putting so much code in the defvar form has one disadvantage: it puts the documentation string far away from the line which names the variable. Here's a safe way to avoid that:

(defvar my-mode-map nil
  docstring)
(if my-mode-map
    nil
  (let ((map (make-sparse-keymap)))
    (define-key my-mode-map "\C-c\C-a" 'my-command)
    ...
    (setq my-mode-map map)))

This has all the same advantages as putting the initialization inside the defvar, except that you must type C-M-x twice, once on each form, if you do want to reinitialize the variable.

But be careful not to write the code like this:

(defvar my-mode-map nil
  docstring)
(if my-mode-map
    nil
  (setq my-mode-map (make-sparse-keymap))
  (define-key my-mode-map "\C-c\C-a" 'my-command)
  ...)

This code sets the variable, then alters it, but it does so in more than one step. If the user quits just after the setq, that leaves the variable neither correctly initialized nor void nor nil. Once that happens, reloading the file will not initialize the variable; it will remain incomplete.

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