Re: Emacs bug #23794; sort-line behavior regressed from prior Emacs versions

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Robert Weiner <address@hidden>
> Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2016 09:31:14 -0400
> Cc: Drew Adams <address@hidden>, Richard Stallman <address@hidden>, 
>       emacs-devel <address@hidden>
> 
>  The proposal was to make it the only behavior.
> 
> That was how the patch was written but it could easily be changed if the core 
> team will just say what would be
> acceptable. Do you want a new option variable that can be used by multiple 
> functions to pay attention to or
> ignore invisible newlines with a default that would be the same as things 
> work now? Or would you like just an
> optional flag for sort-lines that outline modes could use to minimize any 
> change? Then we can move on to
> other things.

As I wrote, I'd very much prefer a solution that only affects
outline-mode and its descendants.  In those modes, ignoring invisible
lines could be the default behavior.  I think we should also provide a
defcustom to make sort-lines behave in outline modes as it does today,
because, although I agree that the current behavior makes less sense
in those modes, it's nonetheless a valid use case that we should not
disallow completely.

As for modes that are not descendants of outline-mode, the default
should IMO stay as it is now.  Whether we want an option to make
sort-lines disregard invisible text in those other modes is something
I have no opinion about, and won't object if patches to that effect
are submitted.

Thanks.