Re: delete-selection-mode

[Lennart Borgman (gmail)]

Robert J. Chassell wrote:
>     The answer 
>     is of course that the arrow keys without shift does deactivate the region.
>
> No, the arrow keys without shift do NOT deactivate the region with
>
> Today's GNU Emacs CVS snapshot, Mon, 2008 Apr 21  09:59 UTC
> GNU Emacs 23.0.60.18 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.12.9)
> started with
>
>      emacs -Q -D
>
> and configured with
>
>        --disable-font-backend --with-x --with-type1 --with-x-toolkit=gtk


I think that depends on how you activate the region from the beginning 
(and I think it is good). This is how it works for me:

1) If the region is activated with C-SPC then unshifted arrow keys does 
not deactivate the region. Is not this in accordance with what Emacs 
long time users might expect today?

2) If the region was activated with a shifted arrow key then unshifted 
arrow keys deactivates the region. I think this is what users accustomed 
to other applications expects.

---
I think Jason's suggestion for delete-selection-mode fits very well with 
the above. I believe it is easy to remember:

"I think delete-selection-mode (and maybe even transient-mark-mode) 
should be enabled only when the region was marked using shift movement keys.
Setting the mark with C-SPC, moving the cursor and typing a self-insert 
character should definitely not delete the region by default, even if 
the region is active and highlighted."