Re: Proposed patch: allow user to disable lockfile creation

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@xemacs.org>]

Richard Stallman writes:

 >     We have a variable `inhibit-clash-detection' for the purpose.
 > 
 > I wonder if it is possible to determine automatically the best value
 > for it.

Yes.  It's a constant = t (ie, no clash detection) IMO. :-)

Seriously, for backward compatibility I have to say the answer is nil
(enable clash detection).  While I agree with the arguments that clash
detection is mostly useless and occasionally a nuisance, there may be
people who currently depend on it and might lose data if it were
turned off by default and they had to explicitly turn it back on.  The
people who dislike the feature will happily turn it off in .emacs I
suppose.

 > To have multiple users on a machine requires serial terminals or
 > services that allow remote login.  My laptop has neither, so it is
 > impossible to have multiple users on it at once.

"Nothing is impossible."

I believe you have a Linux kernel on your laptop?  Most likely it is
configured with multiple virtual terminals on console.  While only one
login can use the console at each instant of time, it's certainly
possible to have serial use while multiple users are logged in.

As others have pointed out, this feature is also provided by many GUI
systems, including both the GNOME and KDE desktop environments common
on GNU/Linux systems.