Diffs between %s and %s end here (was: vc-set-mode-line-busy-indicator)

[Reiner Steib]

On Sat, Mar 08 2008, Richard Stallman wrote:

>     I dunno, maybe it's just a personal foible, but emacs the "diff" command
>     used to add this sort of terminator line (haven't noticed recently) sort
>     of terminator string, and I always found it very annoying -- it probably
>     doesn't cause anything to _break_ but it was like an ugly little wart,
>     and I always ended up going to extra effort to delete it when saving the
>     output.
>
> I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill.  

Before "Diffs between %s and %s end here" was removed, several people
reported to be distracted or annoyed by it.  See the thread on
emacs-devel in January[1].  Nobody spoke up in favor of it when Glenn
announced to "remove it in a week or so if no-one objects."

> If there is no other reason for its removal, we should put it back
> in.

Please don't (at least provide an option to turn it off).

When I produce a diff before committing a change, I often want to make
sure the no unintended/other changes crept in.  I expect to see
exactly the diffs, not some disturbing additional lines.  Even after
seeing it several weeks (but not using diff very frequently), I still
found it distracting.[1]

>     I think the highlighted mode-line status indicators used by
>     e.g. compile-mode (running or finished etc) now are really nice and do a
>     great job of quickly making me aware of what's going on.
>
> Those canbe useful, but inserting text at the end is also useful.  For
> instance, M-x compile does both.  When it finishes, it inserts text
> saying "Compilation finished ...".

I almost never want to save compilation output buffers (or include it
in a mail message), but I often do for diffs.  Additionally, in
compilation mode, it is more clear that this line is not part of the
output because the bold words are in green or red:

| Compilation *exited abnormally* with code ...
| Compilation *finished* at ...

>     It forces you to do yet another operation (delete the extra output)
>     every time when copying from the diff buffer to and email message, or
>     some other place.
>
> You don't need to delete that extra output.  It doesn't cause any harm
> if you copy it into an email message.

Not everyone is so familiar with the patch command to know what is
ignored and what not.  If even Emacs developers who are quite familiar
with patch, remove the extra line, I'm sure that most "ordinary" users
will do the extra work as well to be sure.

Bye, Reiner.

[1] "Diffs between %s and %s end here".  See the thread with this
    subject in January.
    <http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel/84272/focus=86974>
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
---ooO-(_)-Ooo---  |  PGP key available  |  http://rsteib.home.pages.de/