Re: Reconsider make-backup-files default value

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2024 22:19:42 +0000
> From: James Ipswich <james.ipswich@proton.me>
> 
> Emacs has traditionally kept all defaults very minimal, and most
> functionality needs to be explicitly enabled by the user. For example,
> out of the box minibuffer and CAPF completion is quite plain.

That's not accurate, but I don't think it's worth our while to
side-track into a semi-philosophical argument about this.  Let's
focus on the actual issue at hand instead.

> However, make-backup-files default value is t, which I think goes
> against this philosophy. If I open stock Emacs, with no configuration,
> it pollutes all directories with backup files whenever I edit something.
> This is a bit intrusive as I have never enabled such a functionality.
> 
> I understand this default is old, and comes from a time when machines
> were less reliable and version control systems were not widely used. I
> also understand some current users enjoy this functionality as an extra
> safety net.
> 
> Personally, I think make-backup-files should default to nil or some
> other less intrusive configuration, which would be better aligned with
> the rest of Emacs defaults and how other software behaves.
> 
> Any thoughts?

I would hesitate to change such long-time defaults.  I'm guessing many
people have good use of these backup files (I do) and expect to have
them (I do); changing the default means they all will need to
customize Emacs, and that's _after_ they find out the behavior changed
and curse us, silently or otherwise.

If someone dislikes these backup files and doesn't need them,
customizing that away is so easy that I wonder why we need to argue
about changing these long-time defaults.  It almost never makes a good
use of everyone's time.  Arguing for changes in defaults of user
options is only useful when the existing default makes absolutely no
sense in any reasonable use case.