(text-mode): Remove page-delimiter's `^' from paragraph-start.

(paragraph-indent-minor-mode): New command.

lisp/textmodes/text-mode.el

@@ -79,6 +79,8 @@ Turning on Text mode runs the normal hook `text-mode-hook'."
   (set-syntax-table text-mode-syntax-table)
   (make-local-variable 'paragraph-start)
   (setq paragraph-start (concat page-delimiter "\\|[ \t]*$"))
+  (if (eq ?^ (aref paragraph-start 0))
+      (setq paragraph-start (substring paragraph-start 1)))
   (make-local-variable 'paragraph-separate)
   (setq paragraph-separate paragraph-start)
   (make-local-variable 'indent-line-function)
@@ -91,6 +93,7 @@ Turning on Text mode runs the normal hook `text-mode-hook'."
   "Major mode for editing text, with leading spaces starting a paragraph.
 In this mode, you do not need blank lines between paragraphs
 when the first line of the following paragraph starts with whitespace.
+`paragraph-indent-minor-mode' provides a similar facility as a minor mode.
 Special commands:
 \\{text-mode-map}
 Turning on Paragraph-Indent Text mode runs the normal hooks
@@ -103,6 +106,19 @@ Turning on Paragraph-Indent Text mode runs the normal hooks
   (setq local-abbrev-table text-mode-abbrev-table)
   (set-syntax-table text-mode-syntax-table)
   (run-hooks 'text-mode-hook 'paragraph-indent-text-mode-hook))
+
+(defun paragraph-indent-minor-mode ()
+  "Minor mode for editing text, with leading spaces starting a paragraph.
+In this mode, you do not need blank lines between paragraphs when the
+first line of the following paragraph starts with whitespace, as with
+`paragraph-indent-mode'.
+Turning on Paragraph-Indent minor mode runs the normal hook
+`paragraph-indent-text-mode-hook'."
+  (interactive)
+  (set (make-local-variable 'paragraph-start)
+       (default-value 'paragraph-start))
+  (set (make-local-variable 'paragraph-separate) paragraph-start)
+  (run-hooks 'paragraph-indent-text-mode-hook))
       
 (defalias 'indented-text-mode 'text-mode)