Re: master 9ccaa09a635: ; .dir-locals.el (log-edit-mode) <fill-column>: Set to 64.

[Po Lu <luangruo@yahoo.com>]

Jim Porter <jporterbugs@gmail.com> writes:

> Aren't the entries in ChangeLogs indented by one tab (so 8 characters
> by default), which would mean that if we want to fill the ChangeLog to
> 74 columns, we actually want log-edit-mode to fill to 74 - 8 = 66
> columns?

In the other thread, Eli stated that the correct fill-column is 65,
which is equivalent to 64 in log-edit-mode.

> That passage was last changed by Eli (CCed) in 2022 (commit
> 161cb6034cec). Previously, it said this:

True, but the definitive setting lies elsewhere, in `add-log.el':

  (setq left-margin 8
	fill-column 74
	indent-tabs-mode t
	tab-width 8
	show-trailing-whitespace t)

which has existed since the beginning of time, or thereabouts.

> (There was a sentence after that recommending the first line be <=50
> columns moved elsewhere in 2021, but otherwise, that passage has been
> that way from 2015 until Eli's change.)
>
> In any case, if the intent is really to limit *ChangeLog entries* to
> 78/140 columns instead of *commit messages*, then the commit hook that
> CONTRIBUTE mentions is wrong; it checks for exceeding 78/140 columns
> in the commit message.

We wish to limit ChangeLog entries to _74_ columns, while leaving the
door open to exceeding that limit for messages that are impossible to
fill neatly within it.

> I don't have a terribly strong opinion here of what number to use, but
> we should at least resolve the inconsistencies in CONTRIBUTE,
> .dir-locals.el, and build-aux/git-hooks/commit-msg.

commit-msg is fine as-is, but CONTRIBUTE should be fixed.