Subject: Re: bug#15478: cc-mode does not obey electric-indent-mode

From: Alan Mackenzie <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2013 09:45:43 +0000

On Thu, Oct 03, 2013 at 12:10:16AM -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> >> That's because *you* like electric-indent-mode.  Not because C is special.
> > Electric indentation is more useful in a language like C than it is in
> > something like Python --- C has a richer set of brace characters.

> Right: Python is indeed special because fully automatic indentation is
> not really possible.  But C is not special in this respect.

I.e., electric indentation needs to be off in Python.

> > cc-mode's sophisticated syntactic indentation is an Emacs "killer feature".

> The "sophisticated syntactic indentation" is also a killer feature for
> Octave users, SML users, Lisp users, Javascript users, ...

I.e., electric indentation needs to be on in C, Octave, .....

> > Anyway, we should be showcasing it by default, using electric
> > indentation, instead of hiding it behind configuration because users
> > might want to lobotomize their indentation by rebinding <tab>.

> That's arguing for changing the global default of electric-indent-mode.

The global default should be On for C and Off for Python.

> Whereas this bug report is about changing cc-mode to follow the
> global preference, whichever way it's set.

If it's been set.  New users, hacking in both C and Python, should be
able to have the major-mode dependent optimum, without having to set it.

>         Stefan

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).