electric-indent-mode: abolition of `newline' function is not the Right Thing.

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hi, Emacs.

`electric-indent-post-self-insert-function' effectively redefines
`newline' to `newline-and-indent'.  So, whilst `electric-indent-mode' is
enabled, there is no easy way to invoke the traditional functionality of
`newline'.  This is a Bad Thing.

I discovered this whilst trying `electric-indent-mode' in Text Mode.
I have a command which starts a new paragraph thusly:
(i) It calls `newline' and inserts, e.g. "(vi) ".
(ii) It calls `fill-paragraph' for the text in the new paragraph.

Unfortunately, `newline' indents the "(vi) " to the level of the
old paragraph, so that the following `fill-paragraph' joins the old and
new paragraphs together.  This is bad.

`newline-and-indent' exists as its own command, traditionally bound to
C-j.  A better way for `electric-indent-mode' to achieve the effect it
wants is to get users to rebind <CR> to `newline-and-indent' or suggest
the use of C-j.

`newline' must continue to exist, both as a command and as a lisp
function.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).