Re: A wish, a plea

[David Kastrup]

"Juanma Barranquero" <address@hidden> writes:

> On 6/22/07, David Kastrup <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>> Huh?  The principal meaning of "Scratch that." is to throw something
>> away.
>
> Throw away. As a voluntary act. Not lose by accident. That's what
> we're discussing here.

That sounds to me as sensible as putting the cat habitually in a
garbage bin temporarily, then complaining that the garbage men do not
even take a look at what they are taking away, since garbage should be
declared to be garbage by virtue of a voluntary act, not just by
sitting in the garbage bin.

I strongly object to "*scratch*" getting semantics that make it
useless as a scratch pad by asking for confirmation and similar stuff.

If people use *scratch* for creating documents, lisp-interaction-mode
is the wrong mode, anyway.

I'll readily agree to have a default buffer "*unnamed*" in text mode
selected when Emacs is called without filenames (or when other buffers
have been deleted), a buffer which asks to be saved when changed,
prompting for a file name, but I certainly want to keep *scratch*
around with its current semantics.

It would also be ok with me if the _emergency_ recreated buffer when
all buffers have been deleted would be "*unnamed*".  But I think it
important that *scratch* is available as a bottom level buffer from
the start (so that people may notice it), and that it is recreated in
Lisp Interaction Mode, including the warning at its top, when I switch
to "*scratch*" and it does not exist.

-- 
David Kastrup