RE: Indenting paragraphs manually

["Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> Thanks, Drew! (I have to find the time to learn elisp... :) )
> 
> You've implemented a solution for this problem, but what do you think
> about my original question in this thread, i.e., the behavior of the
> <TAB> key in text mode, in the current Emacs trunk? Do you understand
> it? Does the manual describes it well?

I haven't followed this thread.  But reading your original post and trying Emacs
-Q (on Windows), I agree with you, PJ, and Le that this seems to be a bug.  I
tried a few versions, none of which seem to have the currently documented
behavior:

Emacs 22 - but the behavior matches the then-documented behavior, so OK.

Emacs 23 and 24 - behavior is more or less as described except for this: the
region is deactivated, so you cannot hit TAB again to indent more (you must use
`C-x C-x' first).  Le Wang already mentioned this.

I'm also not sure about the "advance...to next tab stop" thing.  Different lines
in the region can get indented different amounts, especially if repeating TAB
(after C-x C-x) after the first TAB indents to align with the first
non-whitespace char of the previous line.

I suggest you file a bug.  Emacs developers will let you know whether they agree
that it is a bug.  If they agree, they will decide whether the behavior should
change to fit the doc, vice versa, or some combination.  If they disagree, it
might still be the case that the doc could be improved to prevent
misunderstanding.

---

In general (not just for you or this thread), my advice is to not hesitate to
file a bug report.  Better to discuss such things in a bug-report thread than
here.  This list is for helping and getting help.

Obviously, if you are (i.e., one is) unsure what something should do then there
is a gray area, but there is no reason (IMHO) to hesitate to file a bug report.

If you have read the doc and are still unsure what the behavior should be, then
there's a good chance that at least the doc could be improved.  Letting the
developers know what is unclear to you, no matter what your level, can help
everyone.