Re: java line termination

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

    If I compile code like this with gcj, and then use gdb to debug it, I
    find that the debug arrow will be misplaced, because Emacs and gcj
    disagree about the current line number.  Similarly, M-x next-error
    will sometimes jump to the wrong line, as gcj reports line numbers
    according to Java rules, but Emacs interprets them according to its
    own rules.

Why does GCJ follow the Java convention for the line number
in its error messages?  I see no reason to do that.  Does it
have anything to do with correct execution of the Java program?
If this were changed, in what sense would that be a problem?

    I think in java-mode Emacs ought to respect Java's notion of line
    termination.

That is probably impossible because the buffer contents have already
been subject to EOL conversion.  If you turn this off, Emacs will
display \r as ^M, which will be rather annoying.  Emacs has many
line-counting features and you would have to change them all.
It is not feasible.

Fixing GCJ would be much cleaner, and definitely more in the GNU
tradition.  We do not follow standards slavishly; we follow them
to the extent it is useful for users that we do so.  So the question
is, would this change in GCJ have any downside, for the users?