Subject: bug#33855: 27.0.50; Can't see markup in HELLO

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 21 May 2022 13:58:19 +0200

Stefan Monnier <[email-masked]> writes:

> Looking a bit more into it, I wonder if 'enriched-toggle-markup' should
> be merged with the `enriched-mode` command itself.
>
> Currently, doing something like:
>
>     C-x C-f .../HELLO    # Open an enriched-mode file
>     M-x enriched-mode    # Disable enriched-mode
>     foobar               # Insert arbitrary text
>     C-x C-s              # Save
>
> throws away all the annotations without any warning.
>
> WDYT?

(Then more discussion followed.)

I don't really have much of an opinion here -- I think that
enriched-mode is a weird thing to have as a minor mode.  If you switch
it on in a programming mode, and then save the file, you've destroyed
the file -- silently.  (You can often undestroyify it by loading it into
Emacs, and then writing out the buffer text to a file, but would a user
know that?)

It's a thing that only makes sense as a major mode, inheriting from text
mode, and it should have its own file ending, like HELLO.enriched.

Fortunately, the only file in existence in the entire universe➀ that uses
this format (and minor mode) is etc/HELLO, so it's not a major issue
(except for the file-destroying bit for unfortunate users, but
fortunately most people don't know about it so they don't try to use
it).

➀ Fact not officially notarized.
-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no