Re: A wish, a plea

[Sascha Wilde]

Karl Fogel <address@hidden> wrote:

> Sascha Wilde <address@hidden> writes:
>> I'm actually using *scratch* quite often, as a scratch pad for stuff I
>> don't want to save (and don't want to be asked, if I want to save them
>> on exit), as well as for ad-hoc elisp stuff.
>
> Unlike most users, you know how to change any default anyway.

True, and I will if I have to.

But the defaults define the first impression a new user gets from
Emacs, and back when I chose Emacs, I liked the impression of a
powerful hackertool with defaults suiting my needs.  *scratch* is not
the one big killer feature, but it's one piece in the puzzle -- and
yes I admit, I'm selfish and I love and want to retain this "written
by hackers for hackers" kind of software.  :-)

> We could retain it, but make one of these changes as well:
>
>    a) the initial selected buffer be a Fundamental Mode or Text Mode
>       buffer ("scratch", "notes", whatever), with buffer-offer-save
>       turned on by default.
>
>        -or-
>
>    b) if we just want to retain *scratch* as-is, that we at least
>       default to buffer-offer-save in that buffer, in stock Emacs.
>
> Do you object to both (a) and (b)?

I strongly object to (b) as it is against the idea behind *scratch*.
I could live with (a) given that:

1. The new default buffer is not called *scratch*
2. *scratch* will be still available after starting Emacs (though not
   being switched to by default)
3. The old behavior could be easily restored by setting 
   i-am-an-old-school-hacker-and-want-my-scratch-buffer-back to t (or
   something like that).  ;-)

> We can keep the *scratch* buffer, if we must, but are you really
> saying that it should also be the default selected buffer,

I like it that way, but as said, it can be made optional, if people
insist on that change...

> and it should not offer to save on exit by default?

Yes!  This is an important part of the concept of *scratch*.

sascha
-- 
Sascha Wilde
Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool.