Re: whitespace-only changes

[Stefan Monnier]

> I am sure he knows what he's talking about, but it is unfortunate that
> we cannot fix bad indentation.  Can't we correct this problem somehow?

FWIW, I think it's OK to commit whitespace-only changes when they fix
a "serious" problem, e.g. when the indentation is confusing.

AFAIK in the sample suggested commit, none of the changes were "serious"
(there was even one reindentation where I happen to prefer the current
indentation (even though it doesn't match what our auto-indent code
does)).

> For instance, label whitespace changes clearly in the commit log, and
> change some tools to ignore them?

I don't think whitespace-only changes are justified often enough to
warrant all that work (there are many tools that would be affected).
More useful would be to make the tools aware of file where whitespace
changes are (mostly) not significant so they can auto-resolve
some conflicts.


        Stefan