Re: --with-file-coding
Uwe Brauer wrote:
Vin> On 9/29/05, Uwe Brauer <oub(a)mat.ucm.es> wrote:
>> So the question remains: shall I contact the debian manager in
>> any of these two issues: set file-coding to ON change the
>> pack-dir config
Vin> Yes, I think each of those issues should be addressed in the
Vin> Debian package.
Ok, I do, but sorry to nag: on one hand you recommend to have
file-coding on for a very popular linux dist on the other hand you
don't want it as default, why is this?
The advantage is that it makes it easier to edit DOS/Windows text
files. When you load them, the CRs will be removed from the end of
each line; when you save them, the CRs will be put back.
The disadvantage is that some packages need "binary" input and will
misbehave if the file-coding mechanism eats the CRs.
Also, some users might want any CRs to be clearly visible so that they
notice when a file uses CRLF. With file-coding enabled, you probably
won't notice that a file uses CRLF unless you're actually looking for
it.
I suspect that defaulting to "off" on Unix is just the usual
backward-compatibility issue, where version N+1 behaves like version N
unless you explicitly ask for the new features. OTOH, it's almost
certain that anyone using XEmacs on Windows would want it enabled.
--
Glynn Clements <glynn(a)gclements.plus.com>