\startmode and \ignorespaces

[Hans van der Meer <havdmeer@xs4all.nl>]

A little while ago I asked whether \doifmode and friends should have an \ignorespaces at the end. Hans Hagen answered "no" and after some reasoning (probably along the same lines as his) I agree with him. Thus one uses in a quite natural way:
   some text\doifmode{xyz}{ conditional text} following text
doing nothing else than: some text conditional text following text.
With regard to this it is understandable and correct that extra space is taken in the next construct:
   some text \doifmode{xyz}{ conditional text} following text.

But it looks different to me when using the \startmode .. \stopmode pair.
---- some text.
\startmode[xyz]
some conditional text.
\stopmode
further text.

In order to avoid here the extra space one has to code an extra %
---- some text.
\startmode[xyz]%
some conditional text.
\stopmode
further text.

or (not preferred imho):
---- some text.%
\startmode[xyz]

I think this is error prone as it is al too easy to forget the %. The situation here differs from the \doifmode-case. I tend to believe that the fact that the \startmode[] .. \stopmode construct invites one to separate the statements with newlines (whitespace thus). Therefore I would ask if this plea for an \ignorespaces effect at the end of the \startmode[xyz] should be honored.

Hans van der Meer

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