Because if I type "hello" in a document, I expect the editor to save "hello", not "hello\n".
(I was actually very surprised when vscode _didn't_ do this!)
Edit: Which is to say, I don't think l24ztj is using "expect" in the sense of "anticipate" but rather, y'know, the other sense. (Using Wiktionary's definitions: "To consider obligatory or required" or "To consider reasonably due".)
If you want to specify the exact bytes on disk, you should use a hex/bin editor.
I should only need a hex editor if I want to make a file that can't be decoded as text under a known encoding, and no encoding I know (and certainly none that I use) has the encoding/decoding rule I mentioned above. I certainly shouldn't need one just to make a validly-encoded UTF-8 file that happens to end in a character other than a newline.
Basically, either it's part of the encoding or it's part of the text, and if it's part of the text, I ought to be able to control it. And it isn't part of the encoding.
I agree. But for me a text file that does not end in newline is badly formed. It is not a text file, it is a binary file that happens to contain some printable characters.
This is also why tools that have a Unix heritage tend to complain if there is no terminator/separator at the end of the file (even in Windows), like most C compilers.