bug#27122: 26.0.50; [PATCH] Add customizable to display unprintables as hex

[Robert Cochran <robert+Emacs@cochranmail.com>]

Vasilij Schneidermann <v.schneidermann@gmail.com> writes:

> [...] Generally it seems that the world has moved on and prefers
> hexadecimal over octal formatting, except for `chmod` and Emacs.  You
> sigh and convert the octal to hexadecimal. [...] Why can't Emacs make
> this easier?

Agreed. This makes Emacs really look like the odd man out. Personally,
chmod gets a pass because the octal very cleanly maps to Unix
permissions. But it looks awkward when Emacs does it, especially when I
believe it to have no reason to do so.

>> We already have quite a few related features, and I wonder whether
>> you could simply use one of them.
>
> The only one I'm aware of you could use instead is to manipulate the
> display table.  This allows for the same effect, but is problematic as
> there are other modes manipulating it, such as whitespace-mode.  You'd
> therefore need to manipulate `standard-display-table' and
> `buffer-display-table'  with an appropriate hook to cover all cases.
>
> I consider the patch to be a cleaner solution.

Not as well versed on these features that Eli is referring to, so I'm
less helpful here. However, what is wrong with adding what is clearly an
option, so it can be changed in one place and be done with it?

-- 
~Robert Cochran

GPG Fingerprint - E778 2DD4 FEA6 6A68 6F26  AD2D E5C3 EB36 4886 8871