Subject: Re: bug#66706: [PATCH] Automatic elisp dialect insertion

From: Po Lu <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2023 08:59:45 +0800

Stefan Monnier <[email-masked]> writes:

>> As mentioned earlier, please make the automatic insertion be off by
>> default, and please reflect that in the NEWS entry.
>
> That makes the patch completely useless.  There's already an opt-in
> solution (via `auto-insert`), so I'd oppose this patch if it's OFF by
> default since it's just added complexity.
>
> The whole point of this patch is to help those users who don't
> know better.
>
>
>         Stefan

I want this off by default.  We teach users to enable lexical binding in
the Lisp introduction and a myriad of other places; inserting lexical
binding cookies is not "the icing on the cake", but a gesture that
implies we should override the judgement of our users, and are willing
to browbeat them into abiding by such notions of ours.

Similar measures taken by other software bespeaks the existence of a
sense of superiority in their developers; doubtless, they think it
beyond their users to read several pages of documentation pertaining to
lexical binding, and to make from that an informed decision.

Users who know what lexical-binding controls will enable it without any
wheedling, should they so desire.  Users who don't or won't will delete
the cookie, then repine about its presence; quite justly at that, for
software which holds its users in such low regard is nothing except
impertinent.

We never insert text to enforce our conceptions of good practice in any
major mode.  Such is the first step down a very precipitous slope, which
culminates in the adoption of the haughty attitude that other software
has seized upon with particular zeal.