bug#29766: 25.3; REGRESSION, Dired on MS Windows, switches -alF

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2017 21:11:00 -0800 (PST)
> From: Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>
> Cc: 29766-done@debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> > > Why the longstanding default behavior changed?
> > 
> > Because it makes Dired on Windows sort in the order that's much more
> > similar to what it does on GNU/Linux (where 'ls' produces such an
> > ordering by default in popular locales).
> 
> And that's a good idea because ___?

For the same reason Emacs displays files in Dired buffers as "ls -l"
on Unix would, the same reason why we don't put directories first and
display the execute "attribute bit" for programs, which doesn't exist
on Windows, the same reason why we display "inode numbers" if you add
"-i" to the switches.  We do all that, and more, to try to present a
similar UX on all supported platforms.  I thought this was clear to
any veteran user of Emacs.

> I suppose it's good for people using multiple platforms
> (consistency).  But since different platforms have
> (apparently) such different outside-Emacs behaviors,
> perhaps an alist of values, keyed by platform in some
> way, would be better.  Then the defaults for common
> platforms could be preconfigured according to what
> users of those platforms might expect.  And a user
> of multiple platforms could opt for either the same
> behavior everywhere or different behaviors here and
> there.  Just something to think about, I guess.

We already have plenty of such customization options in ls-lisp.el,
had them for a long time.