Re: arch taglines for emacs

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

    That is a specific variation on the general idea we've been kicking
    around for what to do.   It's likely we'll do something like that.
    The specific proposal doesn't answer the question of changes to spaces
    _within_ the tag:

      /* arch-tag: tagged on 2003-01-01-12:12:12 by miles bader <miles@gnu.org>!! */

    vs.

      /* arch-tag: tagged on 2003-01-01-12:12:12 by miles bader<miles@gnu.org>!! */

Deletion of a single space is unlikely--filling won't do that, and
humans are likely to think of it as a real change and not do it
either.

By contrast, what is likely to happen is changes in number of spaces.
So if you treat all whitespace groups as equivalent to a single space,
you should avoid the problem.

Also, if you use string syntax with doublequotes, people are likely to
avoid changing anything inside that, even the number of spaces.

       It would be best, I think, to make the change as a strictly
       compatible extension.

I agree.

			      For example, tags using `arch-tag' comments
       will continue to work as is, and tags using `arch-id' comments (or
       some new string) will work in a new way that is delimited and not
       so sensative to whitespace.

That is one way to do it.  Or else you could use string syntax if the
tag begins with doublequote.  That is similar to shell syntax and will
be easy to understand, and I doubt it will break any tags people are
using now (though that is not absolutely guaranteed).