Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2014 11:07:24 -0500
From: Jerrad Pierce <belg4mit(_at_)pthbb(_dot_)org>
Message-ID: <20140224160724(_dot_)B25344C0EC(_at_)db(_dot_)pthbb(_dot_)org>
| I did not do anything in particular, I simply opened the file in emacs
| and ammended it
emacs is a sack of horse sh*t from another universe...
There are two models for what a text file looks like (given variable
length lines with embedded line delimiters, not fixed length card
images or explicitly counted objects).
One has lines being a sequence of characters terminated by a line end character
(or character sequence). The other has lines being sequences of characters
separated by a line divider character (or sequence).
Unix has (from the start, and still) always adopted the former definition.
Lines terminate with an end of line character (\n), if that isn't there,
it isn't a line (and a file that doesn't end in \n isn't a text file).
Other systems (including from where emacs originates) use the second
definition.
There's no point arguing which is correct - either can be - nor which is
better (each has advantages and disadvantages). There is also no point
attempting to justify emacs extremely user unfriendly behaviour in a unix
environment - it is unjustifiable.
But there is also certainly no reason at all to go modifying any code to
handle emacs brokenness - if you make a corrupted .mh_profile (or any
other file) then you should expect bizarre behaviour (just as you would
if you allowed emacs to stick a \0 in the middle of a line, which I think
it is also capable of doing, but which also has no place in unix test file
lines.)
You could try submitting a bug report to the emacs people, but they won't
take any notice - they're one another of their evangailcal crusades attempting
to convert the whole world to their view of what the universe should be
like (as seen from the universe from which they came - long since imploded...)
kre
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