From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Saving markup formats Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:36:20 -0400 Message-ID: References: <871wgi9jzb.fsf@jidanni.org> <87odjlwpu1.fsf@jurta.org> <87ir9r1m99.fsf@jurta.org> <87myz2i9tj.fsf@jurta.org> <87r6ocx0tk.fsf_-_@jurta.org> <87d4zuyvn6.fsf@gmx.de> <87fy4prmdf.fsf@jurta.org> <85sl8ngp94.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> <87abuuexfo.fsf@kanga.tapsellferrier.co.uk> <87ps3qriao.fsf@gmx.de> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1182361124 24691 80.91.229.12 (20 Jun 2007 17:38:44 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:38:44 +0000 (UTC) Cc: alkibiades@gmx.de, nferrier@tapsellferrier.co.uk, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Oliver Scholz Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Jun 20 19:38:42 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1I148Z-0000OS-K5 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 20 Jun 2007 19:38:35 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1I148Z-00078R-3W for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:38:35 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1I146Q-0005n6-19 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:36:22 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1I146P-0005mj-E3 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:36:21 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1I146P-0005mc-7O for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:36:21 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([140.186.70.10]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1I146O-0000es-UH for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:36:21 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1I146O-0003Hv-MV; Wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:36:20 -0400 In-reply-to: <87ps3qriao.fsf@gmx.de> (message from Oliver Scholz on Wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:12:31 +0200) X-detected-kernel: Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) 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: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:73457 Archived-At: I am against structured data formats for an Emacs buffer because there is no way to reconcile that cleanly with the Emacs Lisp model of a buffer as a string of text. I thought about this thoroughly 15 years ago. The problem is not just a matter of implementation. It is a problem of irreconcilable design concepts. In an ordinary word processor, the only goals are at the UI level. In Emacs, though, we need to make any design fit the Emacs programming model. I thought the rms was saying "why store data somewhere other than a buffer?". No, I was talking about what the buffer contents can consist of. In other words, why add DOM (for example) to Emacs so that we can store text in it when we already have text buffers? I don't know the term "DOM", so I have to guess just what this means. If it means that a buffer would consist of multiple strings, which are put together through some other kind of structure, that is just no good. It can't make kill and yank work.