In emacs 24.3 and earlier, I could choose to indent for tabs at the beginning of a line and use paragraph-indent-minor mode to make fill respect a tab as the beginning of a paragraph (instead of whitespace to be eliminated).

Beginning in 24.4 I couldn't. When package 24.3 no longer ran with updated libraries I built my own version of 24.3. Now I can no longer build it, so I'm trying to figure out how to make current emacs do what I want.

I can make emacs always-indent on startup with tab-always-indent in .emacs, but it doesn't start in parindent mode, I have to turn it on, which is a bore, *and* turns off tabs making indents.

How can I make emacs start in parindent mode and indent for tab?

Can't you turn on paragraph-indent--mode in a text-mode-hook?

I can't find 'text-mode-hook' in 'info emacs' or when I search help when in emacs.

In fundamental mode tab indents ('cause I have 'tab-always-indent' on) but when I switch to (or start up in) a paragraph-indent mode it doesn't. Before version 24.4 it did.

I hoped to find it in one of the 'el's (e.g., text-mode.el or indent.el) but substituting 24.3's 'el's made no difference.

If I have read the Emacs manual correctly, you should set Paragraph-Indent Text mode instead of the usual Text mode.
Then set the buffer option [Save for Future Sessions] to have the option on startup.
See sections 51.1.3 Changing a Variable and 51.1.4 Saving Customizations of the Emacs manual.

I do, and wrote that I do.


I edit $HOME/.emacs. Beginning with 24.4 emacs no longer respects tab-always-indent in text modes. It respects it in fundamental mode (and C and HTML), but fundamental mode does not treat indentation as the beginning of a paragraph.