Re: Diffs between %s and %s end here

[Dan Nicolaescu]

David Kastrup <address@hidden> writes:

  > Reiner Steib <address@hidden> writes:
  > 
  > > 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]
  > 
  > Maybe we should put informational messages like that as an (evaporating)
  > afterstring overlay on the final LF character?  That way they would not
  > be copied anywhere.

That sounds good, as long as M-w and insert-buffer don't copy that
string.
But the main question remains: is it worth doing it? We already have the
mode-line notification, does adding another type provide a significant
benefit for the user?