Re: delete-selection-mode

[Harald Hanche-Olsen]

+ David Kastrup <address@hidden>:

> Lennart Borgman <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 3:35 PM, Alan Mackenzie <address@hidden> wrote:
> > [...]
> > 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 will not outweigh O(n)
> arguments even with a small factor eventually.

Surely, O(n) outweighs O(1), but I am not convinced that the argument
is O(1). I can only offer anecdotal evidence (myself). I have been an
emacs user since the late '80s; I can certainly remember 18.54 being
THE emacs for a long time. As a result, I am far from mouse centric,
and I pretty much have most basic emacs keystrokes firmly embedded in
my muscle memory.

However, I do an ever increasing amount of text entry in things that
aren't emacs: In web browsers (that web 2.0 thing), in computer
algebra systems with their own GUIs, in OpenOffice, and even (hating
every keystroke, but sometimes a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do)
MS Word, and they ALL behave in you-know-what way. As a result, habits
from those other places have started encroaching on my ingrained emacs
habits, and I now do find myself, with distressing regularity, trying
to delete the selection in emacs by just typing. For my part, this has
ceased being an O(1) phenomenon and is now strictly O(n). So I'll
experiment with having del-sel-mode turned on from now on. I didn't
know it existed - imagine that! It's been around since 1992, if the
comments in delsel.el are to be believed.

I won't take a firm stand on whether it should be made default, but if
not, I agree with those who say its existence needs to be made
abundantly clear to users - in whatever fashion this can be done.

- Harald