Re: Change default behavior of some commands that act on region?

[Stefan Monnier]

>> I see two sub-issues to this:
>> 
>> 1- Breaking long-standing behavior.  I'll let others figure out how to
>>    minimize this (e.g. by testing for `transient-mark-mode` or something).
>> 
>> 2- If we take a step back, I think we'll see there's a "better optimum"
>>    in this area when `transient-mark-mode` is in use.  E.g. we could
>>    combine `downcase-word` and `downcase-region` into a single command
>>    which will do either of the two depending on `use-region-p`.
>
> To remind us, this was triggered by someone's mistaken keypress.  I
> don't think we should use such mistakes to justify significant changes
> in long-established behavior.  I can easily come up with other
> examples where mistakenly holding, e.g., the Ctrl key makes an
> absolute mess of my editing (e.g., 's' becomes C-s, and the rest of
> what I type more-or-less disappears into the void).  That doesn't mean
> we should make over-reaching changes to save me from myself.  That way
> lies madness, IMO.  We should stop before it's too late.

I think you're referring to sub-issue (1) above.
That doesn't preclude improving our UI as in (2) above, which would free
up `C-x C-l` for those users who prefer to use "transient-mark-mode +
M-l".


        Stefan