Re: Transient Mark Mode on by default

[Chong Yidong]

David Kastrup <address@hidden> writes:

>>> So all-in-all I really don't see why everybody is making a lot of
>>> fuzz over making shift-select a 1st class emacs feature -- when
>>> we could just as well just leave it to CUA mode to DTRT, but possibly
>>> make a few enhancements to basic Emacs functionalities to assist CUA
>>> mode to do its work.
>>
>> I'd tend to agree.  Maybe we should make cua-mode more visible and be
>> done with it.
>
> It is right there in the (sparsely populated) "Options" menu.  In my
> opinion, that is as good as it gets.

cua-selection-mode is not available in the Options menu.  I wouldn't
mind adding an additional menu item for it, but if so, I think it should
be on by default.

There are two good reasons for providing shift-selection by default.
Firstly, new users expect shift-selection.  Secondly, unlike the other
features provided by cua-mode, shift-selection does not change the
existing Emacs control scheme in any significant way, since shift-arrow
keys are currently undefined key sequences (which, for convenience, we
translate into unshifted keys).

The reason that we started this long discussion about making
shift-selection a 1st class feature is that people weren't happy about
the way cua-selection-mode works (e.g., using the post-command hooks),
which prevents it from being turned on by default.

Furthermore, making shift-selection a 1st class feature isn't too
difficult, as I've previously shown.  It also has the advantage of
integrating with and complementing mouse-selection (e.g., you can select
a region with the mouse, then extend it with shift-selection).