Re: delete-selection-mode

[Lennart Borgman (gmail)]

Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> > A useful "quasi-quantization" to consider is how many bits of state a
> > user must keep in mind to accurately predict the dynamically variable
> > behavior of self-insert-command.  (One is probably pushing it and I
> > gather that emacs is going well into N>1 territory.   Bummer.)
>
> I think this is the most important point in this discussion (and many
> others).  An essential feature of Emacs is that N = 0, or at least has
> been until recently.  That is what distinguishes it from both vi and
> typical lesser editors, and IMAO is a critical part of what makes Emacs
> such a joy to use.  

Hi Alan and Thomas,

In a sense I agree, but for that I have to stretch my definition of 0 
quite a bit ... ;-)

Beeing more serious I think that the base mix of states should be as 
stable as possible. However that should be true both for new and old users.

As we have seen from the discussion even long time users may have great 
trouble accomodating to changes in the base state. For some period 
(short or long) the new and old base state must be available in memory 
and I guess this can interfere with other psychic activity.

I believe that for new users it is even worse. They tend to use other 
applications beside Emacs and that means that the new and old base state 
comes from different applications and must be kept available in memory 
for as long time that the user uses both Emacs and other applications 
(or have changed Emacs to use cua-mode and maybe some other things).

I am not sure how important the burden of the state is, but I guess that 
some of the upset feeling might come from this burden. Some surely come 
from other psychic domains. BTW, do you know that stressed animals tend 
to seek the familiar surroundings even if the stress factor is there? 
Perhaps this can be translated to that stress is something that can 
block creativity in certain circumstances.