Re: should xterm-mouse-mode be on by default?

[Dan Nicolaescu]

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:

  >     xterm-mouse-mode is missing some very useful functionality (at least
  >     IMO): 
  >      - it is not possible to double-click to select a word/line/etc.
  >      - it is not possible to select text with the mouse in emacs and then
  >      use mouse-2 to paste in another xterm, or emacs. How would you copy
  >      text from an emacs running in an ssh session in an xterm? 
  > 
  >     A lot of users use these features, so IMO it is not a good idea to
  >     turn on xterm-mouse-mode by default at this point. 
  > 
  > I don't follow the logic.  While the failure to implement some mouse
  > features is clearly a drawback, why would it be better to implement
  > none than to implement some?  I don't see it.

The argument is like this: a lot of users ONLY use the mouse in an xterm
to select text and then use mouse-2 to paste it in another
xterm/another application. Not being able to do this makes the mouse
not very useful, and the user would blame emacs for this. 

Yes, it is still possible to use shift-mouse to access the normal
xterm copy/paste functionality, but there are few problems with that:
      - as Miles said, most users would not know about this
      - makes the xterm running emacs behave inconsistently with all
      other xterms one might use at the same time
      - using the mouse and the keyboard at the same time is not very
      convenient 


      --dan