Re: delete-selection-mode

[David Kastrup]

Lennart Borgman <address@hidden> writes:

> On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 10:23 AM, Alan Mackenzie <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>> You and a few others, so as to save a single key easy press (<del> or
>> C-w) want to heap massive inconvenience on others.
>
> Not a few. All non-Emacs users (and they are a majority) are used to
> that typing a character when text is selected will replace a visible
> region/selection.

That people are used to getting annoyed does not mean that they desire
getting annoyed.

Emacs has enough annoyances of its own.  Adding all annoyances people
see elsewhere is not going to improve its value, particularly not
long-term.

So can we please return to the discussion how delete-selection-mode can
be made to better fit with Emacs' handling of the mark?  If any attempt
of proposing better compatible semantics is shouted down, my vote for
making it the default is no.

Emacs' default settings should reflect a coherent whole that can be used
without the user needing circumventive measures between one part of the
keybindings and another.

As long as any attempt to achieve that is sabotaged, I am not in support
of "giving in" to the demands for more "standard" behavior.

One important metric for me is that when handing Emacs to a person
previously not exposed to computers, every question about Emacs' default
behavior can be answered without "it's inconvenient, but people are used
to it from other applications".

> Don't you think the way to go is to make suggestions that can both
> move us towards the common defaults and do what you think is best for
> old-timers?

Currently, any such suggestion is shouted down and not being discussed.

-- 
David Kastrup