Re: Emacs CC Mode's auto-newline facility: INFORMAL SURVEY

[Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net>]

[Originally sent to Alan by email; posted to the NG now that I’ve sorted out
the posting issues I was having when I first read the message.]

(I’m not especially a power user of CC mode, except that I edit C most
days--but I suppose feedback from people in my position is relevant too.)

 Ar an t-ochtú lá de mí Aibréan, scríobh Alan Mackenzie: 

 > [Followup-To: gnu.emacs.help.  Add your own group if you wish.]
 > 
 > To all those who use (X)Emacs's CC Mode to edit C, C++, Java,
 > Objective-C, Pike, AWK or IDL:
 > 
 > To help direct the development of CC Mode, it would be useful to find out
 > how people use the auto-newline "minor mode" facility.  If you could
 > spare a little time, would you answer these questions, please:
 > 
 > o Do you program with auto-newline switched on (e.g. do you get NLs
 >   inserted automatically after typing a `;' or `{')?

No. If I were to notice them being inserted, my first reaction would be to
look up what the relevant feature is, and turn it off; that reaction,
though, would be from the same point of view as my reaction to the behaviour
of the tab key in emacs when I first used the editor, which reaction I think
was wrong, all these years later :-) . 

That said, does cperl-mode (for example) offer a feature like this? Because
I could imagine the switching between the two options when people move
between Perl and C as being very annoying. 

 > o Did you configure this auto-newline setting yourself, and if not, are
 >   you happy with it?
 > o Are you aware of the key binding C-c C-a to toggle this mode on and
 >   off?

No. 

 > o How often do you use C-c C-a (or even C-c C-t) to toggle auto-newline
 >   mode?

This newsgroup posting is the first I’ve heard of it. 

 > o In which language(s) (C, C++, ....) do you program in (X)Emacs?

C, long list of other languages not especially relevant to CC-mode. 

That said, I really appreciate the attention to detail and general
completeness of CC mode. It’s calming to know I can load it and it’ll just
work, much more than not, after having used some of the php-modes that are
to be had in the wild :-) . 

 > Further pertinent comments are, of course, welcome.  Thanks in advance
 > for your time.

-- 
“I, for instance, am gung-ho about open source because my family is being
held hostage in Rob Malda’s basement. But who fact-checks me, or Enderle,
when we say something in public? No-one!” -- Danny O’Brien