Re: message-mode is now default?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Bastien <address@hidden>
> Date: Sat, 18 Jul 2009 07:51:12 +0200
> Cc: address@hidden, address@hidden, address@hidden
> 
> > Any problems with message-mode should be fixed, of course, but it's
> > pretty clear that it's a better default.
> 
> So why not making message-mode the default when those problems are
> fixed?  Making message-mode the default is not a problem for people 
> who already use it, it is a problem for people who are not using it.  
> So making things smoother for these people is a good idea IMHO.

I had a few spare moments, so I compared mail-mode and message-mode.
The differences I found are below.

Disclaimers:

    Please note that I don't necessarily think all of them should be
    changed to match mail-mode, in order for message-mode to be
    compatible.  But I do think they all need to be _considered_.

    I also don't pretend to have found all the important differences,
    nor that all my conclusions below are correct.

    Finally, what's below is based on inspection of the *Help* buffer
    and defcustoms; I didn't actually try using message-mode, and
    don't know anything about it, except what I saw just now.

Here's what I found:

 . In mail-mode C-c C-f C-f moves to FCC; in message-mode C-c C-f C-f
   moves to Followup-To, and C-c C-f C-w moves to FCC.

 . In mail-mode C-c C-f C-a moves to Mail-Reply-To; in message-mode
   C-c C-f C-a runs the command
   `message-generate-unsubscribed-mail-followup-to' and there doesn't
   seem to be a command to move to Mail-Reply-To.

 . In mail-mode C-c C-f C-l moves to Mail-Followup-To; in message-mode
   C-c C-f C-m moves to Mail-Followup-To and C-c C-f C-l is undefined

 . In mail-mode C-c C-t moves to message text; in message-mode this is
   on C-c C-b, while C-c C-t runs `message-insert-to'.

 . In mail-mode C-c C-v runs `mail-sent-via'; in message-mode it runs
   `message-delete-not-region'.

 . mail-mode runs `text-mode-hook' and `mail-mode-hook'; message-mode
   says it runs `message-mode-hook' "in addition to any hooks its
   parent mode `text-mode' might have run" -- it isn't clear to me if
   these two are compatible wrt what text-mode does.

 . message-mode overrides the following global key bindings:

   - C-a runs `message-beginning-of-line'

   - TAB runs `message-tab'

   - M-; runs `comment-region'

 . message-mode's default value of `message-generate-new-buffers'
   seems to generate buffer names in a way that is different from what
   mail-mode does.

 . message-mode's default value of `message-fill-column' overrides the
   global value of `fill-column'.

 . mail-mode uses `mail-setup-hook'; message-mode uses
   `message-setup-hook'.

 . mail-mode uses `mail-yank-hooks'; message-mode doesn't appear to
   have such a facility.

 . message-mode's default value of `message-citation-line-format'
   seems to produce different results compared to what `r' in Rmail
   produces.

 . message-mode's default values of `message-yank-cited-prefix' and
   `message-yank-empty-prefix' are different from the results produced
   by the default value of `mail-yank-prefix', and the names of the
   options are also different.

 . message-mode's default value of `message-signature' is different
   from mail-mode's `mail-signature', and the names of the options are
   different.

 . mail-mode uses `mail-signature-file'; message-mode uses
   `message-signature-file'.

 . mail-mode uses `mail-default-directory' for auto-saving mail
   buffers; message-mode uses `message-auto-save-directory', and the
   default values are also different.

 . mail-mode uses `mail-mode-syntax-table'; message-mode uses
   `message-mode-syntax-table.  The default values are also
   different.

 . mail-mode uses `mail-send-hook'; message-mode uses
   `message-send-mail-hook' and `message-send-hook'.

 . mail-mode's `mail-bury' tries to show the Rmail buffer if
   `mail-bury-selects-summary' is non-nil.  message-mode's
   `message-bury' doesn't seem to have a comparable feature.  (This is
   important when reading mail on a text terminal.)

 . message-mode doesn't seem to have an equivalent of `mail-use-dsn'.

HTH