Wrong type argument: symbolp, possible mismatched parenteses in .spacemacs

Question

I am trying to apply a fix to make it easier to change todo status in org mode. The code is the following:

'(
     (org :variables org-want-todo-bindings t)
)

from https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/issues/8640.

I put it under the dotspacemacs/user-config function like the instructions showed. However, when I reload the .spacemacs file, I get the following error: Error in dotspacemacs/user-config: Wrong type argument: symbolp, (quote ((org :variables =org-want-todo-bindings= t)))

There's another configuration line in that function, and that works properly, but adding the org mode configuration causes an error. Using edebug-defun shows Invalid read syntax: "Failed matching", (&rest symbolp form), but the parentheses look like they're matching to me.

(defun dotspacemacs/user-config ()
  "Configuration function for user code.
This function is called at the very end of Spacemacs initialization after
layers configuration.
This is the place where most of your configurations should be done. Unless it is
explicitly specified that a variable should be set before a package is loaded,
you should place your code here."
  (setq-default dotspacemacs-configuration-layers
                '((spell-checking :variables =enable-flyspell-auto-completion= t))
                '(
                  (org :variables =org-want-todo-bindings= t)))
  )

What am I doing wrong here?

Answer 1

(setq-default dotspacemacs-configuration-layers
              '((spell-checking :variables =enable-flyspell-auto-completion= t))
              '((org :variables =org-want-todo-bindings= t)))

setq-default has the same signature as setq. It expects zero or more pairs of variable plus value expression.

You've supplied one variable (the symbol dotspacemacs-...) but two value expressions (the two lists that follow that symbol). You're either missing a second variable, to go with the second value expression, or you have an extra value expression.

Either of these would be OK:

(setq-default foo '(whatever)
              bar '(other whatever))

(setq-default foo '(whatever))

What's not OK is this:

(setq-default foo '(whatever)
              '(other whatever))