Re: Keep/drop emacs variables in documentation sources?

Dear Branden,

On 2024-04-24, G. Branden Robinson wrote:
> At 2024-04-24T19:06:23-0000, Guenter Milde via Docutils-develop wrote:
>> So my question is:

>> * Do we want to keep the emacs variables block?
>>   Is anyone using emacs?

> I tend to use Vim, but occasionally use emacs.

>> * If yes, do we need the FORM FEED character
>>   (it shows as ^L in my text editor).

> As far as I know, this is not necessary.  As I recollect, GNU Emacs
> scans backward through the last 3,000 bytes of the file attempting to
> match the "Local variables:" pattern; the lack of a form feed character
> before that text does not frustrate the search.

thanks for checking this out.

AFAIK, the ^L (FORM FEED) is intended to hide the local variables away
(maybe as a marker for some emacs-special functionality or simply by pushing
the following lines out of view).

The FORM FEED is converted to a SPACE prior to parsing as rST by Docutils.
The local variables are invisible in the output because they are in a
comment block.

The Policies mention the comment block but not the FORM FEED 
(rsp. only indirectly via the source serving as example).


If there are no objections, I would sacrifice the FORM FEED 
in favour of a simple commit test for trailing whitespace.


Günter





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