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Re: draft for DEL key poll
From: |
Alan Mackenzie |
Subject: |
Re: draft for DEL key poll |
Date: |
Wed, 28 Sep 2011 07:54:30 +0000 |
User-agent: |
Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) |
On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 08:52:20PM -0400, Chong Yidong wrote:
> Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:
> > In Emacs 24, now in pretest, a change is being considered for DEL
> > (often the Backspace key) and the Delete function key. When there is
> > an active region, they would delete the region instead of just one
> > character. This is enabled by default in the current pretest, so
> > building and using the pretest is a way to test it.
> This description fails to explain the underlying logic behind the
> change.
> If an active region is made with the mouse, and with shift-selection,
> the DEL key deletes it. This behavior is non-negotiable as a default,
> as it is the standard behavior of graphical applications on modern GUI
> platforms and there is no good reason for Emacs to violate it.
There are several good reasons, otherwise Richard wouldn't be initiating
a poll about it.
I sincerely hope we won't be introducing too many more behaviours which
are "standard" in modern GUIs.
> Some Emacs commands perform a certain operation on the region when it is
> active. In general, this "act on region" behavior does not draw a
> distinction between a region made with the mouse (or shift-selection)
> and a region made "normally" (e.g. by C-SPC followed by point motion).
> In previous Emacs releases, a special exception was made for the DEL and
> delete keys. This exception has now been dropped.
I cannot let you get away with this epistemological conflation. These
other commands do not act _ON_ the region. They act _IN_ the region.
I.e., they do their normal thing in a portion of the buffer. You've
utterly changed the meaning of `delete-character-forward', making it act
ON a region rather than on a character. The behaviour of DEL and delete
was not previously an exception - they did their normal thing at the
boundary of the region.
> Anyone who argues that DEL ought not to delete a "normal" active region
> should provide a convincing explanation of why DEL should be treated
> differently from other Emacs commands that act on active regions.
See above. DEL should keep its normal meaning in the presence of a
region, just like most other commands do.
As a matter of interest, in the proposed default configuration, how does
one delete a single character at a boundary of an "active" region?
--
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).
- Re: draft for DEL key poll, (continued)
- disable delete-selection-mode? (was: Re: draft for DEL key poll), chad, 2011/09/26
- Re: draft for DEL key poll, Juri Linkov, 2011/09/26
- Re: draft for DEL key poll, Chong Yidong, 2011/09/26
- Re: draft for DEL key poll, chad, 2011/09/28
- Re: draft for DEL key poll, Richard Stallman, 2011/09/29
- Re: draft for DEL key poll, chad, 2011/09/29
- Re: draft for DEL key poll, Andrew W. Nosenko, 2011/09/29
- Re: draft for DEL key poll, chad, 2011/09/29
- Re: draft for DEL key poll, Richard Stallman, 2011/09/30
- Re: draft for DEL key poll, Eli Zaretskii, 2011/09/30
Re: draft for DEL key poll, Chong Yidong, 2011/09/26