Re: ASCII-only startup message?

[Paul Eggert]

Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> That text is a comment we insert into *scratch*; it's not a doc
> string.

Sure, but the same considerations apply to it that would apply to any text in 
commentary and documentation. The text should use good English style.

> We shouldn't
> produce non-ASCII characters in comments, it's a user prerogative.

This is Emacs's comment, one that Emacs creates and inserts, so user prerogative 
does not apply here.

> The adverse effect of inserting non-ASCII characters shows when your
> locale's codeset is not UTF-8: if you want to save that buffer or any
> part of it that includes this comment, you get annoyed by the request
> to specify a suitable encoding (because*scratch*  correctly starts
> with the locale's default encoding).

This sort of thing is far more likely to happen with *Help* and *Info* buffers 
than with the *scratch* buffer. If it is a problem, it needs to be fixed in 
general, so that any far-more-likely scenario is fixed. Changing the startup 
string is likely to paper over any real problem, and so is counterproductive.