Re: EOL: unix/dos/mac

[Stefan Monnier]

> The end-of-line indicators for coding systems are unix, dos, and mac.
> I suggest they are replaced with lf, crlf, and cr.

I do not like cr/lf/crlf as I expect many users will have no idea what
they mean.

> Mac OS X has been preloaded on all Macs since 2002.

The "Mac" indicator is indeed a very poor choice nowadays.

> "DOS" might also lead to confusion, since Microsoft Windows isn't
> really DOS (anymore).

"DOS" is not a great choice either, indeed, tho it's definitely not as
bad as "Mac" since the heir of DOS still uses the same system.

> I have customized my Emacsen long ago to show /, \, and : instead.

I also like this representation, since it happens to correlate rather
well (although most Mac OS X users never see the `/', just like most Mac
OS users never saw the `:' separator).

> The current indicators are shown only if the EOL format is _not_ the
> native one on the underlying platform.  That was done a long time ago,
> to draw users' attention to the fact that the file has unusual line
> endings.  I think the need to draw attention to that has passed.  But
> that's me.

I actually disagree that this need has passed.  For that reason,
I actually like to see "(DOS)" in the modeline, since a simple change
from "/" to "\" would definitely go unnoticed (in my case at least).

So I'm OK with "updating" the indicators, tho I'm not sure what we
should use instead.  To replace "Mac", maybe we could use "MacOS9",
which is longish but hopefully such files are rare nowadays.  But DOS
files are not rare, so we need something sufficiently concise.

BTW, in this same area, it would be good to detect and indicate
prominently "Unix with some CRLFs", also known as "mixed-line-ending",
which is often misunderstood as "my Emacs fails to recognize my CRLF
file".


        Stefan