Re: Unify on encoding

[Eli Zaretskii]

On Tue, 19 Mar 2002, Richard Stallman wrote:

>     I'm guessing that quite a few people are using the CVS version nowadays, 
>     so the option was, in a certain sense, ``released''.
> 
> As a matter of principle, this is NOT a reason to keep a feature which
> we decide is unnecessary.  People who use the CVS version do so at
> their own risk.

This is a misunderstanding.  The current mode of operation of released 
Emacs versions is that there's no unification on encoding.  The CVS code 
added an option to turn on that unification.  Stefan's question was about 
whether turning it on by default (to which I didn't object) should be 
accompanied by removing the possibility to turn it off.

I only objected to the latter part, because doing so would change an 
important characteristic of the default operation without leaving an
escape route for users who don't want the new default.  I don't think 
I've ever seen defaults changed in Emacs without some option to go back.

In other words, the option that was recommended to be removed ``exists''
in the released version--in the current default operation mode.

> Let's take it out and see if anyone complains.

What's the rush?  An option that is turned off cannot possibly do any 
harm.  Bitter experience with Mule should have taught us that we 
shouldn't make changes without a good reason.  Isn't it better to get 
some experience from having unification turned on by default?