[PATCH] Preserve trailing blank lines

[Jason Dunsmore <emacs-orgmode@dunsmor.com>]

I like to leave a blank line at the end of items that have bodies, but I
found functions like org-metaup, org-metadown, and org-refile were
leaving that blank line behind.  Here's a patch to fix that:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
diff --git a/lisp/org.el b/lisp/org.el
index 5eb0bc8..e3d71b7 100644
--- a/lisp/org.el
+++ b/lisp/org.el
@@ -18448,7 +18448,7 @@ Taken from `count' in cl-seq.el with all keyword arguments
   "Move backwards over whitespace, to the beginning of the first empty line.
 Returns the number of empty lines passed."
   (let ((pos (point)))
-    (skip-chars-backward " \t\n\r")
+    (forward-line -1)
     (beginning-of-line 2)
     (goto-char (min (point) pos))
     (count-lines (point) pos)))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

I can't think of a reason you would want to leave trailing blank lines
behind, but in case some people rely on that behavior, here's an
alternate patch that creates an option called
org-preserve-trailing-blank-lines:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
diff --git a/lisp/org.el b/lisp/org.el
index 5eb0bc8..e90798c 100644
--- a/lisp/org.el
+++ b/lisp/org.el
@@ -1098,6 +1098,11 @@ breaking the list structure."
                        (const :tag "Always" t)
                        (const :tag "Auto" auto)))))
 
+(defcustom org-preserve-trailing-blank-lines t
+  "Non-nil means preserve blank lines at the end of an item."
+  :group 'org-edit-structure
+  :type 'boolean)
+
 (defcustom org-insert-heading-hook nil
   "Hook being run after inserting a new heading."
   :group 'org-edit-structure
@@ -18448,7 +18453,9 @@ Taken from `count' in cl-seq.el with all keyword arguments
   "Move backwards over whitespace, to the beginning of the first empty line.
 Returns the number of empty lines passed."
   (let ((pos (point)))
-    (skip-chars-backward " \t\n\r")
+    (if org-preserve-trailing-blank-lines
+       (forward-line -1)
+      (skip-chars-backward " \t\n\r"))
     (beginning-of-line 2)
     (goto-char (min (point) pos))
     (count-lines (point) pos)))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

If this is accepted, perhaps the function org-back-over-empty-lines
should be renamed to org-back-over-lines.

Regards,
Jason