Re: cc-mode adds newlines

[Andries Brouwer]

On Sun, Nov 21, 2004 at 01:52:49PM +0000, Alan Mackenzie wrote:

> >You see - nobody wants c-require-final-newline.
> 
> Untrue - Alfred M. Szmidt, for one, wants it.

Did he tell you in private mail? To me he wrote

  "It is not relevant what I want"

> If nobody wanted it, it
> wouldn't have been implemented.

I think that implication is false. As I just wrote to dak,
a lot of stuff is implemented out of ignorance.

> >require-final-newline is a beautiful variable. Set it to ask by default
> >and some people will make it always true, some will make it always false.
> >Many will leave it to ask.
> 
> And some will want it t in C Mode and nil in Text Mode, and really don't
> want to be bothered answering the question "Add one? (y or n)" twenty
> times a day.

Possibly. So far we have not discovered such users.
Maybe Alfred M. Szmidt has told you in private mail that
he has such preferences.

I see lots of people who are unhappy. Jari Aalto writes

  "I agree. The problem is not just in CC mode"

Stefan Monnier writes

  "I'd tend to agree: setting it to `ask' is fine, but only the user
   should set it to t if she likes it, not the major mode."

Richard Stallman writes

  "I tend to think it is wrong for major modes to set this at all."

> OK, you've been bitten.  Sorry.  It's happened already and it can't now
> be undone.

And you see: nobody will discover the existence of this variable
until they have been bitten. That is, the default is unsafe -
files are changed that should have been left alone.
I oppose against an unsafe default.


Andries