Re: electric-indent-mode: abolition of `newline' function is not the Right Thing.

[Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>]

Hello, Stefan.

On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 01:59:07PM -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> > With respect, that is not the topic of this thread.  That topic is that
> > with electric-indent-mode enabled, there is now no command, also no
> > elisp function which has the traditional functionality of `newline'.

> Quick, without looking at the source code of newline: what does
> `newline' do that (insert "\n") or C-q C-j doesn't do?

The answer you're not looking for is "It inserts a newline, whilst doing
lots of Right Things on the previous line that I don't need to worry
about too much.", but it's my preferred answer.

Answering you literally, I think newline invokes filling, abbreviation
expansion and possibly other things, but (insert "\n") and C-q C-j
don't.

> > That is a significant loss to Emacs.

> I don't know what that is supposed to mean.

For one thing, it would prevent somebody using a mode with {e-i-m using
\n} and retaining the classical difference betweeen <ret> and C-j.

For another thing, it will stop lots of Emacs Lisp from working.

>         Stefan

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).