RE: AW: delete-selection-mode

[Drew Adams]

> the I-want-things-just-like-with-Notepad crowd

Emacs with delete-selection-mode turned on is a beautiful thing. It's the way
Emacs was meant to be by the Great GNU in the Sky. (And no, it does not make
Emacs like Notepad - that's a shiny red herring, if not a boogeyman.)

FYI, I too used Emacs without delete-selection-mode, for years and years. I used
it without a mouse for years and years. And without a menu. And without
faces...and frames... I know all about the Emacs region and mark; thank you.

I suspect (no proof) that most of those who decry delete-selection-mode also do
not use transient-mark-mode. The latter is now the default in Emacs (no thanks
to the Great-Wall-I-dont-want-Emacs-to-adopt-and-adapt crowd).

If one uses transient-mark-mode, IMHO it also makes sense to use
delete-selection-mode. That's really the heart of the question regarding the
default, I believe.

I'd even suggest that if any new light is to be shed onto this thread it will
come from arguments about using transient-mark-mode *without* delsel. The rest
is rehash (and even some of that more narrow focus might be rehash - we'll see).

To put it mildly, folks who do not even use transient-mark-mode or delsel mode,
or at least those who have little experience with them, are perhaps not the best
placed to offer advice on whether delsel would add something to t-m-mode as the
default behavior.

And no, we should not reconsider t-m-mode's status as the default - c'est un
droit acquis ;-). Please, let's not hear the same old arguments that were put
forth to prevent t-m-mode's acceptance as the default (and that's what we've
heard from you, so far, no?). It took us years to settle that question. The Wall
finally crumbled; the anti-t-m-mode crowd lost that battle. Just get over it.
Emacs newbies now get t-m-mode by default. Hoorah.

Let's hear instead from those who use transient-mark-mode *without*
delete-selection-mode (intentionally, not just by default or from ignorance of
delsel). Let us know why t-m-mode without d-s-mode is the right choice as a
default for Emacs.

That could be an interesting discussion. And it alone is really pertinent to the
question at hand.

We should not be contrasting Emacs without t-m-mode to Emacs with delsel mode.
We should be contrasting Emacs with only t-m-mode to Emacs with delsel mode
(which includes t-m-mode). Anything else is noise and obfuscation at this point.