Re: finger-pointer curser as default for mouse-face text

[Lennart Borgman]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kim F. Storm" <address@hidden>


: Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:
:
: >     Most other applications manage just fine to allow a user to use
: >     mouse-1 for both setting the point, marking a region, and following
a
: >     link.
: >
: > How do they do this?  Could you describe the behavior pattern
: > of Mouse-1 in those applications?
:
: If you click mouse-1 outside a link, it moves the cursor.
:
: If you click on a link, it follows the link.
:
: If you drag inside or over a link behaviour varies with the
: application, but my suggestion for emacs is that it highlights the
: text and sets point at the end of the drag.

This is the behaviour of the most common web browsers (like Firefox). I
think most other applications have tried to mimic this behaviour and I
believe that is good. Consistent behaviour across applications as far as
possible without sacrificing too much is what most users seems to want.

Firefox does not allow selecting by dragging inside a normal link (an
a-tag), since this is preserved for dragging the link. In Emacs there is
currently no need to drag a link as far as I know so Emacs could allow
selecting by dragging inside a link too.


Some further points about mouse use: I mostly use the keyboard and in Emacs
I mostly found that I do not like the mouse behaviour or that it is
inconsistent. Maybe it is because I am still using 21.3.1 or maybe it is
because I am running Emacs on ms windows, I do not know?

Here is how it works in Emacs Info for me:

* For link at the top:
If i click with left button it follows the link. If I click with right
button nothing happens. I can't drag inside a top link.

* For a link on the page:
If I click with with left button point moves. If I click with right button
region is selected selected and highlighted (even though I started with
bin/emacs.exe -q --no-site-file??).


I would be glad for more consistent behaviour both within Emacs and between
Emacs and the most common applications.


- Lennart