Re: dir-locals.el take precedence over user's mode-hook changes

[Juri Linkov]

>>   > > auto-fill-mode will not be turned on for that elisp file.
>>   >
>>   > Yes, that's a more general problem.  I'd be inclined to change it so
>>   > that the minor mode is unconditionally turned ON rather than toggled.
>>
>> Please do that, this is a long standing issue...
>
> Isn't this going against what the documentation says? Minor modes are
> supposed to be preferences and the user may or may not want those
> modes turned on automatically.

This is not going against the documentation that says in
(info "(emacs) Specifying File Variables"):

     You can use the `mode' "variable" to set minor modes as well as the
  major modes; in fact, you can use it more than once, first to set the
  major mode and then to set minor modes which are specific to particular
  buffers.  But most minor modes should not be specified in the file at
  all, because they represent user preferences.

First, it says "to *set* minor modes" instead "to *toggle* minor modes".
So it is safe to fix the behavior according to the documentation
to set minor modes unconditionally.

Second, it says that *most* minor modes should not be specified
in the file.  However, it is justified to set bug-reference-mode
as a directory-wide setting for a project.

-- 
Juri Linkov
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/