Re: Mixing whitespace and topical changes

[Katsumi Yamaoka <yamaoka@jpl.org>]

>>>>> In <muxhcrf4gmv.fsf@uzeb.lrde.epita.fr> Didier Verna wrote:

> Katsumi Yamaoka <yamaoka@jpl.org> wrote:

>> I did the same before, but now I keep clean only things that I
>> changed. It is enough for me that Lars ever said to me "Don't use
>> whitespace.el or equivalent when changing Gnus.". IIRC, he said he
>> agrees to make source code clean all together but it should be done
>> independently to topical changes.

>         Who's Lars ? ;-)

I honor him as the founder of Gnus.

>> So, I don't mix whitespace changes and topical changes as much as
>> possible. Or else, not only the maintainers who check the validity of
>> changes but also people who read CVS diffs will be bothered if there
>> are such changes.

>         But my point is that 1/ if all CVS committers keep files clean
> automatically, the situation would not happen, and 2/ even if it does,
> you don't have to see the whitespaces difference; there are options in
> diff and such to just ignore them.

Good point.  How do we urge all to do so?  For instance, all
should set `indent-tabs-mode' to t, all should add a whitespace
function to hooks, etc.  It doesn't seem to be easy to me to
achieve it, similar to persuading you not to use whitespace.el.
Otherwise, can it be realized using ``Local Variables''?

>> Making source code clean is generally good. But I think it should be
>> done line by line manually at least in Gnus. What do you think about
>> this?
>>
>> (insert "One space character is here>
>> 	")
>>
>> It is a bad habit of course, though.

>         You're gonna have to give me a more convincing example :-)

>> Let me write repeatedly; please don't use tabs in texi files.
>> Especially for sections in which the indentation is meaningful, like
>> @lisp ... @end lisp.

>         Again, please show me *precisely* a problematic example.

I've posted it.  See this article:

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/64465

Regards,