Re: [POLL] Should we enable or disable automatic tag alignment by default everywhere

[Max Nikulin]

On 17/04/2024 17:21, Ihor Radchenko wrote:
> Or maybe should we keep the status quo with ~org-auto-align-tags~
> sometimes respected and sometimes not?

I am rather neutral in respect to this change.

I like that tags are aligned (so I am not going to set 
`org-auto-align-tags' to nil), but generally I do not bother. I have 
some old headings where tags were typed directly and so they are not 
aligned.

It was painful when I accidentally hit an extra key and got all tags 
realigned. I had to spend some time to avoid committing unintended 
changes. I am unsure if the proposed patch will alleviate similar issues 
since it allows to disable realignment only. In my case some tags were 
shifted by a space or two. Perhaps some editing commands (refile & Co) 
do not call `org-align-tags', perhaps it was direct kill and yank 
bypassing Org edit structure commands, so there was no chance to get 
properly aligned tags after editing.

In that thread tag alignment was just an example when minor user mistake 
can lead to global changes.
Max Nikulin. Preventing inadvertent global modifications. Tue, 12 Sep 
2023 23:47:30 +0700.
https://list.orgmode.org/udq4n4$1me$1@ciao.gmane.io

Some general considerations.

There should be a way to align tags for a specific heading even when 
`org-auto-align-tags' is nil.

> -          (org-align-tags)
> +          (when org-auto-align-tags (org-align-tags))

Instead of repetitive changes I would consider either checking 
`org-auto-align-tags' inside `org-align-tags' or introducing a macro.