Subject: Re: bug#11879: 24.1.50; delete-trailing-whitespace now removes empty lines at end of file

From: Sven Joachim <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2012 23:36:23 +0200

On 2012-07-16 00:31 +0200, Stefan Monnier wrote:

>>> This appeared during the Emacs 24 feature freeze, I don't see why.
>>> I suggest using an optional prefix argument to control this.
>> Why not treat it as an annoying regression, which it is?
>
> I can't remember the exact details, but I do remember it being
> introduced on purpose (tho the purpose might not have justified it).
> I think it was judged that a new custom var for it or a new function was
> not needed.
>
> And, while there is a change, I haven't yet seen a clear argument that
> this change is a problem.

There may be cases where an empty line at the end is actually necessary.
For instance, I occasionally edit chess game files in PGN¹ format, and
removing the trailing empty line breaks the nice feature that several of
such files can be combined with cat(1) to produce a larger one.

Cheers,
       Sven

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Game_Notation