From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Kastrup Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: lax matching is not a great default behavior Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2015 09:49:28 +0100 Message-ID: <87egfay0dj.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1448700587 3169 80.91.229.3 (28 Nov 2015 08:49:47 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2015 08:49:47 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Drew Adams Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Nov 28 09:49:41 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1a2bCN-0007jh-B6 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 28 Nov 2015 09:49:39 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:60019 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1a2bCQ-00060w-7R for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 28 Nov 2015 03:49:42 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:37561) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1a2bCE-00060p-HP for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 28 Nov 2015 03:49:31 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1a2bCD-0005cK-K2 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 28 Nov 2015 03:49:30 -0500 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:58240) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1a2bCD-0005cG-H5; Sat, 28 Nov 2015 03:49:29 -0500 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:43826 helo=lola) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1a2bCD-0002It-3W; Sat, 28 Nov 2015 03:49:29 -0500 Original-Received: by lola (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 9EC31DF497; Sat, 28 Nov 2015 09:49:28 +0100 (CET) In-Reply-To: (Drew Adams's message of "Fri, 27 Nov 2015 21:04:54 -0800 (PST)") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/25.0.50 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Error: Malformed IPv6 address (bad octet value). X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:195444 Archived-At: Drew Adams writes: > This has been discussed somewhat, but I don't think there was > any actual proposal to change the behavior. So here goes. > > Does it still make sense to make search and replacement > use lax matching, i.e., fold stuff, by default? > > I don't think it does. I think that users, especially > new users, would be less confused if Emacs defaulted to > literal searching - no whitespace, case, "character", > or other folding by default. For better or worse, our default fantasy "new user" is not one using a computer for the first time but rather one using Emacs for the first time. Most other desktop applications with a search functionality do case folding. It makes sense in text modes, less so in programming modes, but there are a number of programming languages which ignore case (partly because they are older than useful encodings distinguishing upper- and lowercase letters, and when ASCII terminals came around, people got tired of writing and reading in all-caps). -- David Kastrup