Wrong default indents in message.el

Wrong default indents in message.el

[Arvid Grøtting]

I suspect this must have been a typo:

diff -u -r6.111 message.el
--- lisp/message.el     2001/08/08 22:25:55     6.111
+++ lisp/message.el     2001/08/09 10:05:00
@@ -1616,7 +1616,7 @@
       (mail-aliases-setup)))
   (message-set-auto-save-file-name)
   (mm-enable-multibyte)
-  (set (make-local-variable 'indent-line-function) 'indent-relative)
+  (set (make-local-variable 'indent-line-function) 'indent-relative-maybe)
   (set (make-local-variable 'indent-tabs-mode) nil) ;No tabs for indentation.
   (mml-mode))

Re: Wrong default indents in message.el

[Arvid Grøtting]

"Arvid Grøtting" <arvidg@netfonds.no> writes:

> I suspect this must have been a typo:

Hmm.  My fix, too, might have been a bit too quick.  Although it does
      make message-mode usable again[1], TAB no longer works in any
      sane fashion.  Oh well.

I guess setting indent-line-function is the canonical right thing to
  do for a major mode, but indent-relative is just the wrong default
  choice.  tab-to-tab-stop or indent-relative-maybe come to mind.  Any
  other suggestions?


[1] it's unusable with auto-fill-mode turned on in the current CVS
    version, as this message demonstrates.  Yes, this footnote gets
    all nice and shiny, but the main text doesn't.
-- 

Arvid

Re: Wrong default indents in message.el

[Kai Großjohann]

"Arvid Grøtting" <arvidg@netfonds.no> writes:

> "Arvid Grøtting" <arvidg@netfonds.no> writes:
>
>> I suspect this must have been a typo:
>
> Hmm.  My fix, too, might have been a bit too quick.  Although it does
>       make message-mode usable again[1], TAB no longer works in any
>       sane fashion.  Oh well.

Maybe it is not a good idea, then to set indent-line-function to
anything but indent-to-left-margin in text-like modes :-)

Sorry about spreading such misinformation.

kai
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Re: Wrong default indents in message.el

[ShengHuo ZHU]

"Arvid Grøtting" <arvidg@netfonds.no> writes:

> "Arvid Grøtting" <arvidg@netfonds.no> writes:
>
>> I suspect this must have been a typo:
>
> Hmm.  My fix, too, might have been a bit too quick.  Although it does
>       make message-mode usable again[1], TAB no longer works in any
>       sane fashion.  Oh well.
>
> I guess setting indent-line-function is the canonical right thing to
>   do for a major mode, but indent-relative is just the wrong default
>   choice.  tab-to-tab-stop or indent-relative-maybe come to mind.  Any
>   other suggestions?
>
>
> [1] it's unusable with auto-fill-mode turned on in the current CVS
>     version, as this message demonstrates.  Yes, this footnote gets
>     all nice and shiny, but the main text doesn't.

I remove the setting and let message-tab call indent-relative.  Hope
now it is better.

ShengHuo

Re: Wrong default indents in message.el

[Karl Eichwalder]

ShengHuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu> writes:

> "Arvid Grøtting" <arvidg@netfonds.no> writes:

>> I guess setting indent-line-function is the canonical right thing to
>>   do for a major mode, but indent-relative is just the wrong default
>>   choice.  tab-to-tab-stop or indent-relative-maybe come to mind.  Any
>>   other suggestions?

Won't work either -- see below.

>> [1] it's unusable with auto-fill-mode turned on in the current CVS
>>     version, as this message demonstrates.  Yes, this footnote gets
>>     all nice and shiny, but the main text doesn't.
>
> I remove the setting and let message-tab call indent-relative.  Hope
> now it is better.

I fear it is still broken.  Let's wait until column 72 where autofill
should happen.  Okay,

       it works somehow -- but I've set my tab width (stops) to 4, 8,
       12, 16, ...

Why do think it's a good idea to align the indented paragraph with
"happen" above?  If I try to set the indent function this way, more
    wierd things are happening:

(add-hook 'mml-mode-hook 
	  (lambda ()
	    (setq indent-line-function 'tab-to-tab-stop)))

Regarding indentation message.el coming with Emacs 21 (pre) behaves
    better at the moment :)

-- 
ke@suse.de (work) / keichwa@gmx.net (home):              |
http://www.suse.de/~ke/                                  |      ,__o
Free Translation Project:                                |    _-\_<,
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Re: Wrong default indents in message.el

[Kai Großjohann]

Karl Eichwalder <keichwa@gmx.net> writes:

> Why do think it's a good idea to align the indented paragraph with
> "happen" above?

I think that relative indentation is a Good Thing(tm) for text-like
modes.  If you want to advance to the next tab stop, you can always do
M-i.

But of course, the meaning of TAB should be customizable in some way.
<advertisement> message-x provides a user option for
this... </advertisement>

kai
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Re: Wrong default indents in message.el

[Karl Eichwalder]

Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann) writes:

> I think that relative indentation is a Good Thing(tm) for text-like
> modes.

I disagree.

> If you want to advance to the next tab stop, you can always do
> M-i.

Why forcing a user to use a non standard keybinding if he wants to have
    a standard effect.  "relative indentation" hurts the rule of "less
    surprise".  I never saw a user reports saying "indentations sucks"
    when writing mails with message.el.  A working piece of software was
    changed for no good (just to please the developers).  This is a Bad
    Thing(tm).

And a bug was introduced; cf. the indentation style of the previous
    paragraph.

> But of course, the meaning of TAB should be customizable in some way.
> <advertisement> message-x provides a user option for
> this... </advertisement>

I vote to change it back as it ever was.  The TAB/message-x thingie
    doesn't seem to be documented what's a bad thing, too.

-- 
ke@suse.de (work) / keichwa@gmx.net (home):              |
http://www.suse.de/~ke/                                  |      ,__o
Free Translation Project:                                |    _-\_<,
http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/po/HTML/             |   (*)/'(*)

Re: Wrong default indents in message.el

[Daniel Pittman]

On Thu, 09 Aug 2001, Kai Großjohann wrote:

[...]

> But of course, the meaning of TAB should be customizable in some way.
> <advertisement> message-x provides a user option for
> this... </advertisement>

Out of curiosity, does message-x do much that frobbing
`message-completion-alist' wouldn't?

For me, since that alist contains a binding to complete from BBDB by
default, I am a happy boy...

         Daniel

-- 
Keep a diary and one day it'll keep you.
        -- Mae West

Re: Wrong default indents in message.el

[Kai Großjohann]

Daniel Pittman <daniel@rimspace.net> writes:

> Out of curiosity, does message-x do much that frobbing
> `message-completion-alist' wouldn't?
>
> For me, since that alist contains a binding to complete from BBDB by
> default, I am a happy boy...

Hm.  Oh.  It seems the functionality was added to message, then :-)

Now we might wish to see whether we need smarter completion
functions.  I tried to wrote some, but maybe I failed.

message-x wants to call message-position-point if completion was, err,
complete.  Actually, it looks to see if the buffer has changed or
point has moved, and that doesn't work too well.

kai
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