From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: [Emacs-trunk-diffs] Changes to emacs/etc/NEWS Date: Wed, 08 Dec 2004 23:42:25 -0500 Message-ID: References: <87acsps7qw.fsf-monnier+emacs@gnu.org> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1102568234 5809 80.91.229.6 (9 Dec 2004 04:57:14 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2004 04:57:14 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Dec 09 05:57:06 2004 Return-path: Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1CcGMT-0001ZN-00 for ; Thu, 09 Dec 2004 05:57:05 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.33) id 1CcGPC-0003L4-6Q for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 08 Dec 2004 23:59:54 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.33) id 1CcGOe-0003CA-99 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Dec 2004 23:59:21 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.33) id 1CcGOc-0003AY-Bu for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Dec 2004 23:59:18 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.33) id 1CcGOb-000399-Tf for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Dec 2004 23:59:17 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.164] (helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1CcGBl-0001OV-Mt for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 08 Dec 2004 23:46:01 -0500 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.34) id 1CcG8H-0007dm-PT; Wed, 08 Dec 2004 23:42:25 -0500 Original-To: Stefan Monnier In-reply-to: <87acsps7qw.fsf-monnier+emacs@gnu.org> (message from Stefan Monnier on Wed, 08 Dec 2004 00:06:50 -0500) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:30920 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:30920 I don't find the merged behavior we have right now unclean at all: The `t' simply means: "default from now on". That is quite unusual, for Emacs Lisp, and is certainly not what t should mean. In contrast your proposal of nil would mean "default even for those things written before". Right; the ordering of a default definition and a specific definition that inherits from that default should not make any difference. Furthermore by splitting the thing into t and nil you'll not only make the code bigger, A small amount of implementation code more or less is a minor issue when the question is one of making things clear to users. , but you'll also lose flexibility since it won't be possible to specify a default for a subset of the face spec. How much is that flexibility worth, in practice? Which cases use it?