bugGNU nano - Bugs: bug #55067, [Request] hard line wrapping...

 
 

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bug #55067: [Request] hard line wrapping should be disabled by default

Submitter:  None
Submitted:  Wed 21 Nov 2018 11:05:15 AM UTC
   
 
Severity:  1 - Wish Status:  Fixed
Assigned to:  bens Open/Closed:  Closed

Discussion locked!

Mon 25 Mar 2019 01:26:23 PM UTC, comment #5: 

The changed defaults have been released in 4.0.

Benno Schulenberg <bens>
Group administrator
Sun 24 Mar 2019 06:04:50 PM UTC, comment #4: 

Ralph, you have arrived at the wrong issue.  Please report a new bug.

(This issue is about "automatic justifying", not the automatic addition of a final newline.  In general, if you have the slightest doubt you have arrived at the right issue, then post a new one.  It is easy to mark something as a duplicate and copy data from one issue to another.  But it is impossible to remove erroneous data from an issue, it just clutters things.)

Benno Schulenberg <bens>
Group administrator
Sun 24 Mar 2019 03:27:55 PM UTC, comment #3: 

I've arrived here due to 4.0's announcement saying

    A newline character is no longer automatically added at end of buffer.

If that means the 'text' file that's written doesn't always have an ASCII linefeed terminating the last line of text then that breaks POSIX.

POSIX defines a text files as zero or more lines of characters, each terminated by an ASCII LF.  Thus, the non-Unix Emacs style of text file that writes "1\n2\n3" to a file instead of "1\n2\n\3n" is not a POSIX text file.

Many Unix programs, especially those not from the GNU school, treat these incorrect text files in surprising ways, e.g. ignoring the unterminated final 'line'.  Experienced users can spot the problem.  Inexperienced users, as many nano users probably are, will be foxed by it and should be protected by always writing POSIX text files by default, just as other Unix editors do, e.g. ed(1), and vi(1).

Ralph Corderoy <ralph>
Fri 25 Jan 2019 10:50:02 AM UTC, comment #2: 

Fixed in git, commit 946755a3.

The RFC was posted in http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/nano-devel/2018-11/msg00057.html.  The thread continued with http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/nano-devel/2018-12/msg00005.html.

The general opinion seemed to be that hard-wrapping should be off by default, and an automatic newline too -- they are convenience things and should be requested by the user, they are not suitable defaults for a general editor, they make controlling the exact content of a file harder.

Benno Schulenberg <bens>
Group administrator
Wed 21 Nov 2018 07:03:51 PM UTC, comment #1: 

Hmmm...  Maybe it is time to start considering this.  Maybe the time has come to "break free" from Pico and start using saner defaults.  Let me post an RFC to the devel list.

Benno Schulenberg <bens>
Group administrator
Wed 21 Nov 2018 11:05:15 AM UTC, original submission:  

Hi.  nano is a great text editor, but I keep getting caught out by its policy of hard-wrapping text by default.

Please could the default setting/configuration be to not wrap text, or alternatively, could nano at least be made to visibly warn the user when it does wrap text?

(The warning wouldn't often be seen day-to-day, because after the file is saved in nano, the lines would already be wrapped on future openings.)

Anonymous

 

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    Follow 6 latest changes.

    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2019-03-25 bens Open/ClosedOpen Closed
        Discussion LockNone Locked
    2019-01-25 bens StatusNone Fixed
    2018-12-31 bens Assigned toNone bens
    2018-11-21 bens Severity3 - Normal 1 - Wish
        SummaryHard line wrapping should be disabled by default [Request] hard line wrapping should be disabled by default

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