Re: Proposed patch: allow user to disable lockfile creation

[Tim Cross]

On Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 10:51 AM, Dave Abrahams <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> on Thu Jul 28 2011, Tim Cross <theophilusx-AT-gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> It seems that the issue isn't really about conflict detection per se,
>> but rather how emacs implements it via symlinks.
>
> It's actually more than that.  The scheme is simultaneously
> over-cautious and yet full of holes.  It's predicated on the idea that
> everybody who might touch the file simultaneously is using Emacs, but
> that's obviously a fallacy.  Any program that doesn't respect Emacs'
> convention and look for the lock file (e.g. every command-line tool in
> existence) will happily write the file even when I have a lock on it.
> Furthermore, Emacs is perfectly capable of telling me when that has
> happened before I save... at least it seems to work pretty darned
> reliably.  So I think this feature made sense once upon a time but is
> now just a vestigial flipper.
>
> Am I missing something?  I could be.
>

Sorry, a bit confused now. Are you saying there is no need for emacs
to do any form of conflict resolution at all? From what others have
posted, my impression was that the current implementation was a
problem and therefore, there was a request to be able to turn it off.
My feeling was that conflict resolution is not a bad thing in itself
and if properly implemented, would achieve its desired goal without
getting in the way and therefore, without the need to be able to turn
it on or off. Hence my suggestion to look at OS provided facilities,
which may have matured to the point they could be used instead of what
is seen by some, as emacs' old and outdated approach.

However, I will also say I probably don't understand the problem. I've
been using emacs daily since the mid 90's and have yet to encounter a
problem with this aspect of the software, so I don't quite understand
why it is even an issue, apart from possible aesthetic reasons, which
are fine, but difficult to get consensus on.

Tim