Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:
It's based on the assumption that the user will use the scroll bar to
scroll. That's not true for all users -- for instance, I would never
use the scroll bar to scroll in Emacs, because the keyboard is so much
more convenient.
The scroll bar can also be used to see where in the buffer you are.
It is not necessary to use the scroll bar for this, since the mode
line gives the same info. But some people may have the habit of
getting it from the scroll bar. Maybe people who use the scroll bar
that way would prefer it on the right.
I think the solution floated earlier can address this: those who want to
use the scroll bar as a visual aid should compile without GTK tool bars,
and we should place such tool bars on the left by default, where they
traditionally are in Motif and other old X apps. GTK tool bars should
be placed on the right by default, like all other GTK apps.