[ On Sunday, May 8, 2005 at 12:24:20 (+0200), Igor Sobrado wrote: ]
> Subject: is vi(1)'s autoindent the right default behaviour?
>
> Perhaps it is an acceptable behaviour, don't know.  But I want to note
> that when EXINIT is set to `set autoindent' copying and pasting between
> xterms do not work as most users expect.  I will use the next sample
> text to outline the problem, related with the autoindent feature on vi(1):

Simplistic auto-indent (i.e. that which is not syntax driven, or which
is not used on highly structured input) is almost always going to
produce undesirable results when indented text is pasted into an editor
window (regardless of the editor type).

However I suspect the average user might enjoy the benefit of autoindent
more frequently than they might be annoyed at the problems it causes for
cut&paste operations -- especially for vi users since most such users
are probably quite averse to using their mice for editing.

So even though I'm not much of a regular vi user, I would say autoindent
is indeed the right default behaviour!  :-)

(though I myself usually remember to turn off auto-indent when I do a
cut&paste into an editor running in an xterm window, and if not then I
can still use undo and try again.... ;-)

-- 
						Greg A. Woods

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