Subject: RE: bug#10308: 24.0.92; regression: *Help* ruined for toggling read-only

From: "Drew Adams" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2012 06:51:07 -0700

> If you want to edit the buffer, switch to a major mode suitable for
> editing buffers.  Closing as wontfix.

There is no mode so suitable for editing *Help* as its own mode.

Changing the mode is not a reasonable workaround, as I reported:

>> Now, to be able to edit *Help* you need to change its mode,
>> instead of just hitting `C-x C-q'.  And if you are
>> iteratively fine-tuning doc for *Help*, then each time you
>> refresh it from developing code, you need to change the mode
>> again before you can edit it.

I get the impression that you have never used the capability of making *Help*
writable to develop a *Help* screen interactively & iteratively.  Otherwise,
this should be a no-brainer.

But even if you do not use this feature personally, surely you can understand
that others might.  And surely you can understand that what you have replaced it
with is useless to _everyone_.  Can you honestly make any argument in favor of
the new behavior when writable?  Is there any use case for it?  It is not even
consistent (e.g. DEL vs C-d).

It _appears_ that you did not read the bug report, or did not read it well.
Please (re-)read it.

When toggled to writable, you keep key bindings that make no sense in that
context.  You do not restore the normal keys, which do make sense.  There is now
no point in making the buffer writable.  You have taken away that functionality
for no reason - nothing useful or usable replaces it when the buffer is
writable.

And it is an incompatible change, but it is not even mentioned in NEWS.  How can
you in good conscience think there is no bug here?