Subject: Re: bug#64574: [PATCH] Support not jumping to bol in beginning-of-defun

From: Stefan Kangas <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:07:47 +0000

Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]> writes:

> I hope the users who Spencer say like it tested that in at least some
> situations?

I would like to hear specific reports, to be honest.

For example, when I said that "I'll probably use it", I hadn't really
tested it.  Hopefully not everyone is as irresponsible as I was.  :-)

>> I still think it could be useful, but perhaps it should be a defvar
>> and under the control of major modes?  OTOH, then we have minor
>> modes, but maybe it's used less frequently there?
>
> Is this major-mode specific?

I believe that it might be, e.g. in C and Lisp functions almost always
start at column 0, but in C++, Python, OCaml and so on you can have
additional indentation.  This might be true for any language that has
classes, so Ruby, JavaScript, etc.

> I suggested to make it a user option because Spencer indicated users
> liked that behavior.  User preferences should be expressed in user
> options, not in just variables.
>
> But if you feel uneasy, I won't object to making it a simple variable.

Maybe I forgot to mention this, but if we make it a variable, then major
mode authors that use it will also have a chance to adapt to it and fix
any potential bugs.

We can also keep the option to turn it into a defcustom later.  Perhaps
my concerns will turn out to be overblown with more experience.