Re: Re[2]: ill-advised changes [was key bindings in hideshow.el]

[Kai Großjohann]

On Thu, 1 Feb 2001, Eli Zaretskii wrote:

>> -------- Keymaps and Minor Modes ------------ The key sequences
>>    bound in a minor mode should consist of `C-c' followed by a
>>    punctuation character *other than* `{', `}', `<', `>', `:' or
>>    `;'.  (Those few punctuation characters are reserved for major
>>    modes.)  -------
>> -------- Major Mode Conventions -------------
>>    * The key sequences bound in a major mode keymap should usually
>>      start with `C-c', followed by a control character, a digit, or
>>      `{', `}', `<', `>', `:' or `;'.  The other punctuation
>>      characters are reserved for minor modes, and ordinary letters
>>      are reserved for users.
> 
> Does this resolve the issue?

It seems that M-o, M-p and M-n are still free.  Maybe one of those
could be reserved for minor modes, too?  (M-n and M-p might be in use
by a couple of major modes.  Gnus, of course, uses them; I'm not sure
about other modes.  Oh, and Dired uses M-o.  Too bad.)

We might wish to require a minor mode to use key combinations of
length three or greater, and all of those to have the same length-2
prefix.  For example, one minor mode could use key combinations
starting `M-o a' whereas another could use `M-o b' or something.  (Or
one could use `C-c .' and another could use `C-c /'.)

We might wish to introduce coding conventions where it is easy for the
user to pick a different prefix where the minor mode keys are
installed.  This way, users can have shorter keybindings.  I'm not
sure if the different prefix should replace the standard prefix, or if
the keybindings should be in addition to the standard ones.

Do we need a registry for such things?  Then, minor mode authors could
see which prefixes are already taken.

Since combinations of C, no-C, C (such as `C-c / C-a') are difficult
to type, the minor modes might want to omit the C modifier on the
third key (to get `C-c / a' in the example), so that the bindings are
easier to type.

I wonder for which punctuation characters * the version with C
modifier (C-*) is an ascii character -- `C-c C-/ C-a' might be easier
to type than `C-c / C-a'.  But we don't want to use keybindings which
are impossible to type on a tty.

Should the default Emacs keymap be tailored to the US kbd layout?  On
a German keyboard, `/' is typed by pressing `S-7', so `C-c /' becomes
`C-c S-7' which is not easy to type at all.  For the US kbd, `*' has a
similar problem.  Whee...

Thoughts?
kai

PS: There are too few keys on a keyboard.  Maybe I should give up one
    of my Ctrl keys and make it a super or hyper key...
-- 
Be indiscrete.  Do it continuously.