Re: tool-tip default

[Eli Zaretskii]

On Mon, 6 Nov 2000, Miles Bader wrote:

> Since the tool-bar is turned on by default, I think tool-tips ought to
> be as well.
> 
> While recently trying out `emacs -q', I sat there for about 30 seconds
> with my mouse over one of the tool-bar buttons, waiting for something to
> pop up (without realizing that in fact an appropriate message was being
> displayed in the echo area).  I suspect a lot of people raised on
> M$-ware will do the same thing...

I tend to agree with enabling tool-tips by default (although I have them 
in the echo area, and I'm usually acutely aware of anything that pops up 
in the echo are).  Tool-tips are mostly for newbies, so they should be on 
by default; if veterans find them annoying, they could disable them.

> [I also think transient-mark mode, and global-font-lock mode, ought to
> be turned on by default as well

I think there are lots of optional features people keep asking about, 
which should be turned on by default.  For example, how about auto-fill 
in text modes?

However, I'd suggest that Someone(tm) does the footwork of making a list 
of these features and suggesting under what conditions each feature 
should be turned on (for example, some expensive features might want to 
probe the machine speed first).  We could then discuss that list.

It goes without saying that I think we should not undertake these changes 
before v21.1.  But tool-tips can be enabled now, if we agree on that.