Re: define-derived-mode again (was: Emacs design question)

[Richard Stallman]

    Well, other than the fact that fundamental-mode is interactive,
    it is basically an alias for kill-all-local-variables, so the
    coding-convention that says that a major mode should start by calling
    kill-all-local-variables is pretty much the same as saying that
    every major mode should derive from fundamental-mode.

I see your point, but I think it is useful to keep the distinction
between major modes that are independent and those that really
are derived from others.