On Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:57:59 -0700 (PDT), Xah gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Xah,

For what it's worth, I think I would appreciate an option that makes the
current behavior of the *scratch* buffer tunable, i.e. by an option like:

(defvar scratch-buffer-uses-fundamental-mode nil
"Non-nil makes the *scratch* buffer use `fundamental-mode'.

Emacs recreates the *scratch* buffer in `lisp-interaction-mode'.
If you are not really interested to use `lisp-interaction-mode',
but you would prefer to start all scratch buffers in
`fundamental-mode', to start editing text instead of typing Lisp
expressions, set the `scratch-buffer-uses-fundamental-mode'
variable to a non-nil value.")

But I don't like the `personal attack' style that this text uses, and I
don't really agree with *all* the proposed `modernization' features.

If you were to split that document into smaller `features' and one of
them was a proposal to add an option for the default mode of *scratch*
buffers, and a good description of how you would suggest that we add a
prompt for *scratch* buffers that are modified, I would be more than
willing to help you with the testing and integration of any patches to
the main Emacs source tree.

My own idea about *scratch* buffers that do not fire up only in the
current `lisp-interaction-mode' state is something like:

* Add an option that may be set to a non-nil value to make *scratch*
buffers use `fundamental-mode', or even better, an option that
defines _which_ mode a *startup* buffer should use.

Two possible variations of this option would be:

;;; Boolean option
;; A boolean option that makes *scratch* buffers fire up in
;; `fundamental-mode' by default. The option would be set to `nil'
;; by default, but it should be easy to tweak the option once and
;; keep it set forever.

(defcustom scratch-buffer-uses-fundamental-mode nil
"Non-nil makes the *scratch* buffer use `fundamental-mode'.

Emacs recreates the *scratch* buffer in `lisp-interaction-mode'.
If you are not really interested to use `lisp-interaction-mode',
but you would prefer to start all scratch buffers in
`fundamental-mode', to start editing text instead of typing Lisp
expressions, set the `scratch-buffer-uses-fundamental-mode'
variable to a non-nil value."
:type 'boolean
:group 'editing-basics
:group 'convenience)

;;; A list of choices.
;; Still set to the default `lisp-interaction-mode'
(defcustom scratch-buffer-startup-mode 'lisp-interaction-mode
"The default mode to use for *scratch* buffers.

If the value is `lisp' start in lisp-interaction-mode.
If the value is `text' start in text-mode.
If the value is `fundamental' start in whatever mode has been
configured as the default `fundamental-mode'.
If the value is a function, use that function to set-up the
startup mode of *scratch* buffers."
:type '(choice (const :tag "Lisp interaction mode" 'lisp)
(const :tag "Text mode" 'text)
(const :tag "Fundamental mode" 'fundamental)
(function :tag "Custom mode"))
:group 'editing-basics
:group 'convenience)

* Add the scratch buffer to the list of buffers that trigger a prompt
if they are modified and the user types `C-x C-c' to leave Emacs.

Right now one can open _one_ scratch buffer only. Emacs uses
`buffer-modified-p' as the only criterion, but this doesn't work for
scratch buffers now. It should probably be an option too, or even a
function that checks `scratch-buffer-startup-mode' and decides. I
haven't thought too much about this yet, so I am not sure if it
sounds like a sensible thing to do.