bug#24902: 25.1; C-x = for Unicode

[Mattias Engdegård]

24 jan. 2022 kl. 17.35 skrev Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org>:

> I think using `format-spec' would allow users to tweak this more
> extensively, which they probably want to, if they care enough to change
> it at all.

Thanks for taking a look! I had a go at format-spec, and don't think it's 
appropriate. Let me explain:

1. It doesn't fit the problem very well: neither the traditional nor the new 
format are easily expressed with format-spec since they are conditional in 
several ways (fields or strings that appear depending on the circumstances). In 
contrast, conditions are easily expressible in Lisp.

2. Even if we went through the contortions to make formats expressible in 
format-spec, it still wouldn't be very easy to do so, especially compared to 
choosing a ready-made format. For more advanced customisation, Lisp is probably 
preferable.

3. As any designer knows, customisability is a cop-out: it's an abdication of 
responsibility. The user can now conveniently be blamed for any perceived 
shortcoming. Conversely, being forced to think and make hard choices is much of 
what design is about, and users like when it's done for them in a competent way.

Customisability is a minefield: it is often motivated by vague hypotheticals 
like "what if someone wants to..." when the right question to ask is instead 
what a good design would be and what preferences, if any, could reasonably 
differ.

Let's look at it this way: what would you personally want the format to be, if 
you did not need to think about anyone else's wishes? Then see if our ideas 
might converge. Chances are that we could find something that most users think 
is pretty good, and many of the rest could very well live with.