RE: Poll about proposed change in DEL (aka Backspace) and Delete

[Drew Adams]

> Drew> interactions between Emacs selection/region and standard paste
> Drew> buffers/clipboards/selections were changed, with no 
> Drew> poll - and it is not obvious to a user how to customize Emacs
> Drew> to get back the old behavior.]
> 
> This is one of my few longtime gripes with Emacs, so I would be _very_
> interested in the details of the change.  Are they written up 
> anywhere? If not, could you summarize them here?

No, I'm afraid I cannot summarize them.  I tried to follow the descriptions and
explanations as they came in (largely in response to my questions like yours),
but at the end of the day I can't tell you succinctly just what went down.  For
one thing, I'm no expert about X-Window selection etc.

You can do `M-x view-emacs-news' in an Emacs 24 build, and then search for
"selection".  This is what you will find.  I think it does help, but it might
not leave things crystal clear for at least some users. ;-)

,----
| ** Selection changes.
| 
| The default handling of clipboard and primary selections was changed
| to conform with modern X applications.  In short, most commands for
| killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while mouse commands
| use the primary selection.
| 
| In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
| list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
| 
| +++
| *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
| Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
| the kill ring.  The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
| the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
| 
| +++
| **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
| This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
| regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
| "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
| point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
| 
| ---
| **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
| 
| +++
| *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
| This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
| Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
| 
| +++
| *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
| +++
| *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
| Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
| M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
| 
| ---
| **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
| exactly equivalent to, respectively M-w, C-w, and C-y.
| 
| ---
| **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
| non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
| between applications.
| 
| ---
| *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
| **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
| **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
| **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
| **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
| **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
| 
| +++
| *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
| 
| *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
| To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
| 
`----

> Drew> Transient mark mode is already turned on now in Emacs, 
> Drew> by default.  The proposed change does not implement or
> Drew> replace delete-selection mode.  What it does is make DEL
> Drew> delete the active region.  The second proposed change
> Drew> lets characters you type replace the active region.
> 
> Let us settle this once and for ever:  would the proposal currently
> under consideration change _anything_ for users who set
> transient-mark-mode to nil ?

I don't know.  My guess is no.  Perhaps Richard can explain just what is meant
in this regard, for the two proposals that the poll is about.

[FWIW, I think things would have been clearer if the second proposal (about
type-to-replace) had *not* been included in the (same) poll.  For one thing, the
first poll proposal is already part of Emacs 24, and the second one is not - and
it will not be part of Emacs 24.1.]