Re: Making --with-wide-int the default

[Paul Eggert]

Random832 wrote:
> Sure, it's nice to be_able_  to edit 2GB files, but how many
> of those does the average user have lying around?

Without --with-wide-int the limit is roughly 0.5 GB, not 2 GB. Whether this is a 
problem depends on what sorts of files one typically looks at. These days a 
goodly number of users do run into larger files. Certainly I do -- usually log 
or data files.

Although I try to keep these files less than 0.5 GB, this can be a pain. And 
although I can switch to some other text editor to look at an 0.6 GB file, 
that's awkward, and gives users a bad impression about Emacs's robustness and 
ease of use.

The GNU Coding Standards give advice about whether 32-bit Emacs should default 
to mishandling 0.6 GB files. They say, "Avoid arbitrary limits on the length or 
number of _any_ data structure" (emphasis in original). Emacs buffers are a data 
structure, and --with-wide-int removes a significant and arbitrary limit on 
their length, so the path forward is reasonably clear here.