bug#7169: cannot specify coding via dir-locals

[Stefan Monnier]

>> I added:
>> (coding . utf-8)
>> to the change-log-mode section in the Emacs .dir-locals.el file, then did
>> 
>> ./src/emacs -Q lisp/ChangeLog.1
>> 
>> The file was opened in undecided-unix. I was hoping to be able to
>> remove the "coding: utf-8" that many of the Emacs ChangeLog files
>> (but not that particular example) have.

> Independently of the potential bug, why is it a good idea to have such
> a setting in the Emacs tree?  There are some files for which this will
> do the wrong thing.

FWIW, I think such a setting should be provided for all Emacs files
rather than just for change-log-mode ones.  This would mean "in the
absence of a coding tag in the file, use utf-8", which seems like it
can only be better than the current "in the absence of a coding tag in
the file, use whatever the user happens to prefer".


        Stefan