Re: Emacs bug #23794; sort-line behavior regressed from prior Emacs versions

[Robert Weiner]

On Sun, Jun 19, 2016 at 11:18 AM, Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> wrote:

As I wrote, I'd very much prefer a solution that only affects
outline-mode and its descendants.  In those modes, ignoring invisible
lines could be the default behavior.  I think we should also provide a
defcustom to make sort-lines behave in outline modes as it does today,
because, although I agree that the current behavior makes less sense
in those modes, it's nonetheless a valid use case that we should not
disallow completely.

As for modes that are not descendants of outline-mode, the default
should IMO stay as it is now.  Whether we want an option to make
sort-lines disregard invisible text in those other modes is something
I have no opinion about, and won't object if patches to that effect
are submitted.

This is a much clearer statement of your thinking.  Thanks, it is helpful.  It sounds like you are suggesting that sort-lines have an internal conditional check for whether an outline mode is active in the buffer to be sorted (rather than suggesting a separate outline-sort-lines function), correct?

So I will try for a patch that leaves the default behavior of sort-lines the same unless an outline-mode or descendant is active in which case the default will be to group invisible lines with visible ones.  There will be a way to override the default behavior with the other behavior (not grouping invisible lines with visible ones and treating them as separate lines for sorting).  How does that sound?

I have already fixed this issue for Hyperbole, so I hereby retract the request that it be made a blocking issue for 25.1.

Bob