Re: Putting auto-image-file-mode in Options menu

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

> Indeed, auto-image-file-mode is useful only for viewing images.
> OTOH, editing image files as plain text in Emacs is a rare
> operation too.

Not that rare, especially for text-based image format, or to view/edit the
text in the header of a non-text image format.

> And even with auto-image-file-mode set to t,
> editing is possible after visiting them with find-file-literally.
> With all this said, I have a question: is there any reason not
> to turn auto-image-file-mode on by default?

I admit that I've never opened a png file in Emacs, so for png it might be
OK, but in general there are several "image formats" which are quite
viewable/editable in Emacs.

OTOH I find auto-image-file-mode of very dubious utility: you can barely
look at the image (it's a bit better now with partial-line scrolling, but
it's still much more clunky than any other image-viewing tool), and you
can't do anything more (crop/zoom/rotate/save in another format, ...).

> I would like to ask the same question for auto-compression-mode too.
> What is the reason not to turn it on by default?  How often people
> visit compressed files for editing without uncompressing?

Agreed.  `auto-compression-mode' should be ON by default.


        Stefan