Get rid of "format-all-ensure-formatter"

[mzuther]

Hi!

Is there really a good use case for format-all-ensure-formatter? To me, it seems like like a superfluous option that only does what a normal user would expect anyway. But maybe I'm just being blind here.

Still, I think that you should

• get rid of format-all-ensure-formatter (and call it behind the scenes), or
• call it by default and let power users disable it by setting an option such as format-all-do-not-ensure-formatter

Thanks for your package – now that I call format-all-ensure-formatter from a hook it works great! It seems that I skipped that paragraph when reading the manual... 😄

Martin

[lassik]

The point of not using a formatter automatically is that many projects do not use code formatters (or they use a formatter for some languages, but not for others). If you have a default formatter, and use it to format code belonging to those projects, the formatting will likely be incorrect according to the style guide of that project.

I agree that it's confusing that you have to remember to call format-all-ensure-formatter. I can't think of an ideal way to do this. Would be nice to hear ideas from more people.

[lassik]

Also, setting format-all-formatters buffer-locally to nil is supposed to disable formatting for that buffer. These are quite logical semantics, but nil is currently the default value, and as you say, that may not be a logical default setting.

[mzuther]

Thanks for your fast response!

You are right, the semantics make sense and are pretty logical. But maybe you should add your explanation to the README as it currently isn't very clear on that point. 😄

Also, I find that adding a hook to a package in order to run that package slightly counter-intuitive. My idea is to remove the format-all-ensure-formatter hook and exchange it for a customizable variable format-all-enabled (declared as safe) that is set to non-nil by default. This could easily be customized using local variables, and should run just as fast as the current implementation.

Just my two cents. In case you want to brain-storm, go ahead. 😄