Re: python-mode (python.el): python-backspace

[Richard Stallman]

    > It is not a good thing for a major mode to redefine DEL or Backspace
    > so drastically,

    I don't think it's very drastic, else I'd probably agree.  It's a
    refinement of what many modes do anyway in redefining DEL, and I think
    most people editing Python would think it just DTRT (more-or-less).

If it doesn't look like deleting one character backwards,
it is a drastic change.

    > The default should be to delete one character backwards,
    > one way or another.

    Programming modes typically use `backward-delete-char-untabify', not
    `delete-backward-char', though some bind it to something different.

This redefinition is ok because it fits with the description that DEL
deletes one character backwards.  It reinterprets "one character" in a
legitimate way.

However, to describe the current Python mode definition as "deleting
one character backwards" is clearly untrue.  That redefinition does
not reinterpret the description.  This command does a different job,
not the same job.