Re: Key-binding clash between gnus and calc

[Jay Belanger]

Miles Bader <address@hidden> writes:

> 2005/11/16, Sascha Wilde <address@hidden>:
>> This is about a inconsistency in emacs which should be fixed.  calc is
>> part of GNU emacs and it uses and documents M-# as a global binding,
>> while gnus -- part of gnu emacs, too -- binds it locally.  Of cause I
>> can use a custom binding for calc as Jay suggested (and in fact, it's
>> what I'm doing for now), but I think the TRTTD would be to change
>> either binding.  Global default bindings in emacs should be global.
>
> Both bindings are really old, and are quite commonly used; changing
> either one may cause more harm (read: piss off more people) than good.
>  It's hardly a tragedy to have to use "M-x calc" when in a gnus
> summary buffer.

No; but it is inconvenient if you have to take into account the
current mode before knowing which method to use.  This can be taken
care of by using M-x calc-dispatch all the time, I suppose, but that's
not as nice as using M-#, especially when you might be doing a lot of
different things with Calc.

> However, I think if one _must_ be changed, it should be calc, becuase
> calc until now has always been an extra add-on to Emacs, and for that
> reason probably used by many fewer people than gnus (which has been a
> part of emacs for a long time).

Yes.  Gnus definitely has precedence for M-#.  
Are there any conventions for global keybindings?  The key bindings
conventions section of the elisp manual don't mention any, and doesn't
even discuss M-... keys.

> Morever, if I recall correctly, historically the M-# binding for
> calc has been more of a "suggestion" than anything else (I seem to
> remember that the calc installation instructions told the user to
> bind it himself).

In the 2.02 manual, the installation procedure sets the keybinding.

Jay