Re: Selection changes in revno 100822

[Miles Bader]

Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> writes:
> From the user's perspective, there are several ways of selecting text:
> with C-SPS (with or without transient-mark-mode), with
> shift-selection, and with the mouse.  Let's talk on this level: which
> methods should set the primary and which shouldn't, and why?

* For consistency with other apps which set the primary, it seems that
  mouse-drag should set the primary.  Shift-select also seems to set the
  primary in some other apps (firefox), but I have fewer such apps to try.

* For consistency within Emacs, C-SPC <movement> in transient-mark-mode
  should set the primary.

* For C-SPC <movement> _not_ in transient-mark-mode, I think it
  _shouldn't_ set the primary, since "selection" in this mode is
  visually very distinct from the above types of selection (I don't
  think users are likely to be confused by this).

Users _shouldn't have to think very hard about this_, and thus simple
rules are important.  In this case I think a good simple rule is:

   If you _see_ a selected region in Emacs (no matter how it was
   selected), it's available as the primary for pasting in other apps.

-Miles

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