From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Why is it not possible to use "nil" any more in init files ? Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 09:37:04 -0500 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1416667246 1046 80.91.229.3 (22 Nov 2014 14:40:46 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 14:40:46 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Nov 22 15:40:39 2014 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1XsBrZ-000518-W6 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 22 Nov 2014 15:40:38 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:45657 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XsBrZ-0006lo-6x for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 22 Nov 2014 09:40:37 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:32809) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XsBrD-0006kn-1g for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 22 Nov 2014 09:40:22 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XsBr5-0008VW-JZ for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 22 Nov 2014 09:40:15 -0500 Original-Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:40852) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XsBr5-0008UY-6C for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 22 Nov 2014 09:40:07 -0500 Original-Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1XsBr0-0004qO-TC for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 22 Nov 2014 15:40:02 +0100 Original-Received: from 167-88-26-132.cpe.teksavvy.com ([167.88.26.132]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 22 Nov 2014 15:40:02 +0100 Original-Received: from monnier by 167-88-26-132.cpe.teksavvy.com with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 22 Nov 2014 15:40:02 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 20 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 167-88-26-132.cpe.teksavvy.com User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/25.0.50 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:dil6ZjUYp/LZ6SVx5pqwuoz64iw= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 80.91.229.3 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:101118 Archived-At: > I know that departing from proven approaches for no sensible reason is top > of the art but is there any kind of other rationale to make the thing not > backward-compatible? Of course, there's a reason: All minor modes since Emacs-23 (IIRC) should turn themselves ON when called with a nil argument, so you don't need turn-on-FOO-mode and you can just say: (add-hook 'bar-mode-hook 'foo-mode) The better part of this incompatible change is that it silently *fixed* many people's .emacs since many people already used: (add-hook 'bar-mode-hook 'foo-mode) without realizing that this could actually turn the mode OFF in some cases. Stefan