bug#24150: 26.0.50; New command: dired-create-empty-file

[Tino Calancha]

Phil Sainty <psainty@orcon.net.nz> writes:

> I've not followed this bug, but just wanted to comment that I've found
> https://stackoverflow.com/a/18885461 (which I simply adapted from
> `dired-create-directory') to be a remarkably convenient command over
> the years.
Thank you Phil!

your command does the thing well locally;  I've tested it in a
remote machine and it fails.
It is desirable that every Dired command work regardless of if the machine
is local or remote.
My patch handles the remote machine; not in the most efficient way but we
always could add a handler for the new command afterward.

> I see that there are suggestions against binding it to a key, but I
> would suggest using "_" as a binding in dired (which on a US keyboard
> layout is directly beside "+" (with both being shift-modifier chords),
> which is a binding that I immediately found easy to remember and use.
I use a Japanese keyboard but I sympathize with your suggestion,
after all, I have my own key binding for this feature.

My patch does not provide any binding after the discussion in this
thread.  It might be added later if needed.

At this stage, I am happy to focus the discussion on the acceptance
of the command itself.
I saw users of other editors very used to call a command to create
an empty file.  Sure, we write our own commands for such simple
things, but most of Emacs users don't write elisp: those people
expect this command already built-in.