emacs-devel
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

RE: mode line eol char indication


From: Drew Adams
Subject: RE: mode line eol char indication
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 10:11:47 -0800

> In my experience users often don't know the difference between LF and 
> CR. And they shouldn't have to care, all they need to know is that a 
> text file has line endings that will work with other software 
> on their system (single charactor indication), or if not, what type
> of system this text file has come from so they can make an intelligent 
> decision no what to do about it.

So you are arguing that it is the system/platform name that is more meaningful
to users, not the eol characters. I'm OK with that.

In that case, we should always use `Unix', `DOS', and `Mac' (or similar) -
definitely not `:', `\', and `/'.

One could argue though that users are sometimes concered with the line endings
themselves, as, e.g., when they end up seeing extra ^M chars. Sooner or later,
it seems, people end up learning about the different line endings.

There are arguments supporting each: eol chars or platform name. What's
important is to pick meaningful indicators and be systematic - either always
platform or always eol chars. And not to use indicators (`:', `\', `/') that are
not very representative of what they stand for.





reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]