Subject: Re: bug#22564: Fundamental mode isn't fundamental enough.

From: Alan Mackenzie <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 2016 21:53:01 +0000

Hello, Glenn.

On Fri, Feb 05, 2016 at 03:23:57PM -0500, Glenn Morris wrote:

> Still fighting the electric-indent fight I see.

:-)

> Purely as a data point, from the Emacs manual:

>    The least specialized major mode is called "Fundamental mode".  This
>    mode has no mode-specific redefinitions or variable settings, so that
>    each Emacs command behaves in its most general manner, and each user
>    option variable is in its default state.

> It would therefore be against the spirit of fundamental mode to
> introduce any mode-specific behaviour for it.

I'd agree with that last paragraph.

However, fundamental mode has had mode-specific indentation behaviour
thrust upon it.  You'd probably argue legalistically that once some
indentation behaviour has been made a default, it's no longer
mode-specific.  I'd disagree with you.

Following a particular indentation strategy is _not_ "behaving in the
most general manner", which is what I would like to expect from
fundamental mode.  As Eli intimated, we could really do with an
unspecialised, vanilla major mode, though I've no firm idea what we could
call it: plain-mode, or wydiwyg-mode, or something like that.

The logical upshot would be to make the default indentation behaviour no
indentation.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).