GNU bug report logs - #5312
Why is ‘show-trailing-whitespace’ considered unsafe?

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Package: emacs;

Reported by: ludo <at> gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)

Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2010 14:09:07 UTC

Severity: minor

Done: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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Message #25 received at 5312 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> IRO.UMontreal.CA>
To: James Cloos <cloos <at> jhcloos.com>
Cc: 5312 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#5312: Why is ‘show-trailing-whitespace’ considered unsafe?
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:25:27 -0500

Stefan> Of course, maybe you can come up with file formats where trailing
Stefan> whitespaces are seriously problematic as well.  I just can't think
Stefan> of any off the top of my head.

> One seen recently -- on the groff list, IIRC -- involved continuation
> lines.  <\><NL> works, <\><SP><NL> does not.

That also affects C, C++, Elisp, and many other formats.  The fact that we
haven't mentioned them indicates that it's not considered "seriously
problematic" enough.
Actually, font-lock can also be used in those modes to highlight such
suspicious forms: it's more useful than show-trailing-whitespace since
it can more specifically target those trailing whitespaces that are
semantically significant.


        Stefan
This bug report was last modified 15 years and 132 days ago.

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