bug#72808: 30.0.90; editorconfig doesn't set tab_width to a default value

[Stefan Kangas <stefankangas@gmail.com>]

[Resending after unarchiving the bug.]

Damien Cassou <damien@cassou.me> writes:

> The problem is that the .editorconfig file can be shared across users of
> different editors for a given project. Emacs disagreeing with the
> standard means that Emacs users will now have to explain to their
> colleagues why they are introducing a change in a .editorconfig file
> that the standard says is unnecessary. This is putting me, at least, in
> an uncomfortable position with non-Emacs users in my team. Additionally,
> if other editors disagree with the standard for other reasons, we may
> quickly reach a situation where no content of .editorconfig will suit
> everyone.

I agree, FWIW.

This makes our .editorconfig support less useful than it could be.  The
point, to my mind at least, is exactly that users *shouldn't* have to do
any extra work to get the right settings when opening a new project.  If
it has a correct .editorconfig file, everything should Just Work (TM).

IOW, the user experience I prefer is not "new project, so now you have
to send yet another .editorconfig patch".  At $WORK, for example, this
is complicated by things like which team maintains a given repository,
how amenable they are likely to be to a seemingly redundant patch to
improve support for Emacs, etc.  In all likelihood, I will just end up
creating .dir-locals.el files instead, to avoid the discussion.

If we insist on this, how about adding an option to turn the
incompatible behaviour off?