[Docutils-develop] Keep/drop emacs variables in documentation sources?

[Guenter M. <mi...@us...>]

Dear Docutils Co-Developers,

our Project Policies state in section `Documentation Conventions`__

  * Add an Emacs "local variables" block in a comment at the end of the
    document. See the end of this document for an example.

__ https://docutils.sourceforge.io/docs/dev/policies.html#documentation-conventions

In praxi, the "local variables" block is preceded by a FORM FEED character::

  
  ..
     Local Variables:
     mode: indented-text
     indent-tabs-mode: nil
     sentence-end-double-space: t
     fill-column: 70
     End:

This clashes with the the "trailing-whitespace" `pre-commit` hook
(cf. https://pre-commit.com).

The hook prevents trailing whitespace from entering the repository files
during a git commit (works fine with a local repo based on `git svn`).

This helps to avoid needless fixes/diffs.
It does, however, also remove the FORM FEED!

So my question is:

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

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

If no, I would activate the "trailing-whitespace" hook for documentation.

(Otherwise I may have to write a "trailing-whitespace-except-form-feed" hook
some day...)


Regards,

Günter