Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2017 20:54:47 +0000
> From: Alan Mackenzie <address@hidden>
> Cc: Richard Stallman <address@hidden>
> 
> I have pushed a first draught into the new branch
> scratch/customize-quotes.  Comments would be welcome.
> 
> One thing which I hope isn't too controversial, is that I have redefined
> the value of nil in text-quoting-style to mean "no translation of
> quotes" and introduced t to mean "prefer curved quotes", the meaning nil
> previously had.  The default value for text-quoting-style remains
> "prefer curved quotes".

This _is_ controversial, since it means we are introducing a backward
incompatible change.

> My reasoning here was that having nil meaning "do nothing" is
> intrinsically the Right Thing.  Also very few people, if any, will
> already have explicitly set the variable to nil.  And in any case, the
> use of the variable was restricted to experts, all of whom will be able
> to adapt to the new nil and t without difficulty.

IMO, this reasoning is too weak to justify the incompatible change.