Re: delete-selection-mode

[Lennart Borgman]

On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 8:38 PM, David Kastrup <address@hidden> wrote:
>>> The answer is to ask them why they want this.
>>
>> Have not that been done many, many times - in the context of Emacs and
>> in research on user-computer interaction. As far as I understand the
>> answer is that new users most often want it to behave as they are used
>> to from other applications. They want that exactly because it saves
>> them time
>
> Once.
>
>> and avoids confusion (which also costs them time).
>>
>> I for one agree with that argument.
>
> It is valid, but an O(1) type of argument.


It is a funny argument, but hardly valid. You must look much more
carefully into the problem to see what is gained and what is lost.

I have tried to explain that using defaults that are uncommon is very
bad because it raises the complexity in an already complex situation
for newcomers.

You might compare the way the n-back game works for example. This sort
of game is actually by some researchers believed to increase working
memory and intelligence, something that was thought to be impossible
before. It does this, however, by gradually making the game more
difficult as the user gets better at playing it. If a user is started
on a difficult level no gains or slow gains will be made.


> It will not outweigh O(n)
> arguments even with a small factor eventually.  If something costs time
> repeatedly, saving startup time is not worth the trouble when we are
> catering about being efficient on a continuing base.
>
> I already gave a recipe for making mouse-centric people happy with a
> mouse-centric subset of delete-selection-mode.
>
> Nobody even bothered to read it, apparently.


I hope some mouse-centric people will read it. However Emacs users
normally do not use the mouse very much. Maybe some newcomers do.