"J.P." <jp@neverwas.me> writes:

> It's been pointed out that the most recent attempt at improving the
> situation, especially with regard to the option `erc-nicks-track-faces',
> ended up perpetuating rather unintuitive aspects of the original
> behavior in certain common situations.
[...]
>
> Another problem with the current "normals" behavior is that it fails to
> adequately exhibit the "flickering" effect when `nicks' _isn't_ enabled.
> You can see this by connecting using the default configuration. Notice
> that the mode-line segment stays on `erc-default-face while users are
> conversing so long as they don't mention one another. However, the
> "normals" feature was always meant to provide more responsive feedback
> to clearly indicate active conversations (including monologuing). The
> patch tries to address this by adding the default buttonized speaker
> face to the related options `erc-track-faces-priority-list' and
> `erc-track-faces-normal-list'. If there's a smarter way, hopefully
> someone will speak up.

Attached is a v2 introducing a `t' choice for `erc-nicks-track-faces'.
It suppresses the "alternating" effect associated with the option
`erc-track-faces-normal-list'. See [1] for additional context.

This strays into new feature territory, which should be verboten for
patch releases. However, since closely related code exhibits bug-like
inconsistencies addressed by this patch, and such an addition might help
improve users' mental model in terms of predictability vis-a-vis the
current slate of related options, it seems a somewhat justifiable
inclusion (IMO). OTOH, we could just as well wait until 5.7.

[1] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-erc/2024-10/msg00006.html