Subject: Re: Bug in simple.el

From: Sebastian Tennant <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:06:22 +0000

Hi Stefan,

Returning to the bug list, in case others have opinions on the matter...

Quoth Stefan Monnier <[email-masked]>:
>> Apologies for contacting you off-list.  I'm doing so just in case you'd
>> given up on me.  My penultimate email to the Emacs bug list was
>> something of a rant!
>>
>> Since then I think I've found the perfect solution.  A hook needs to be
>> added to simple.el providing ^M handling and we don't need to change
>> anything in shell-command.
>>
>>  http://article.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help/61630
>
> Hooks are great for users, but for internal use they're usually
> better avoided since we can change the code directly instead.

But in this case, some users may not want ^M handling, so providing a
hook gives users the choice, no?

> E.g. in this case we want to change shell-command.

I agree that given the command is called 'shell-command' it would make
sense for ^M characters to be handled in shell-like way, i.e., no ^Ms,
in which case perhaps we should provide a spearate command for users who
_don't_ want ^M handling; 'unfiltered-shell-command' or something like
that?

Then again, adding a hook and leaving shell-command as it stands is the
simplest option and has the advantage of not breaking anything, i.e.,
no backward compatibility issues.

Seb