Re: [Emacs-commit] emacs/lisp saveplace.el

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

    What were the bad effects of using 'write-file'?

It made saveplace act as if the user had visited this file,
so that the next session would restore the place.

    I ask because I'm wondering if the same change should be made to
    'bookmark-write-file' in bookmark.el.

If bookmark.el currently visits the file when reading it,
changing the way it writes the file would not alter the outcome.

    In fact, maybe there should be a bigger change to bookmark-write-file.
    Instead of using find-file-noselect, it could just work the way
    save-place-alist-to-file does: switch to a buffer, clear the buffer,
    insert the new data, and write it out to the destination.  That is:

How often do users visit the bookmark file?  If they do this commonly,
then it is better to visit the file.  If they do this quite rarely,
then could be is better to work like save-place-alist-to-file.

Another alternative, which could be best if you want Emacs to make backups
of the bookmark file in the usual way, is to visit the file normally,
but kill the buffer after saving it, unless the buffer existed previously.