Re: Why is it not possible to use "nil" any more in init files ?

["Alexandre Oberlin" <email_via_web@migo.info>]

Thanks Stefan for this explanation. So IIUC that trick broke some correct  
.emacs in order to magically fix some broken ones?

Alexandre


On Sat, 22 Nov 2014 15:37:04 +0100, Stefan Monnier  
<monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:

>> 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
>
>


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