Re: Adding refactoring capabilities to Emacs

[Dmitry Gutov]

On 26/09/2023 16:09, Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
> But consider RMAIL, RMAIL handles the file specially to keep whatever
> internal structure sane.  So the only way to edit is to use whatever
> mode bindings you have at your fingers.

And if you split and kill the hunks (in diff-mode) using the dedicated 
commands, the format is indeed preserved better: e.g. the line numbers 
and counters in the hunk headers.

To break the syntax and make a patch un-applyable is also very easy with 
free-form editing.

> Now .. I don't personally favor this, and it seems that there is a
simple switch to make diff files read-only anyway, so maybe leave it
at that?

When I bring such questions up, it's usually to consider the standpoint 
of some new-ish user. More consistency and fewer chances to mess things 
up = better.