non self-insert-command buffers

[Sam Steingold]

Some Emacs modes (dired, occur, arc, many others), usually in read-only
buffers, do not bind single characters like "a", "b" &c to anything
useful (they are bound to `self-insert-command' or to `undefined',
depending on whether `make-keymap' or `make-sparse-keymap' was used).
You get beeps for any key except for some selected ones.
It would seem that some common bindings
should be in place there:
        q       quit-window
        x       kill-this-buffer
        g       revert (mode-specific re-create)
        h       describe-mode
maybe some others.
Why not add a function

(defun make-read-only-keymap (&optional name)
  (let ((map (make-sparse-keymap name)))
    (define-key "q" 'quit-window)
    (define-key "x" 'kill-this-buffer)
    (define-key "h" 'describe-mode)
    map))

and use it instead of
 `make-keymap' (like in dired.el for `dired-mode-map') and
 `make-sparse-keymap' (like in replace.el for `occur-mode-map')?

comments?

[I raised this issue with RMS several years ago]

-- 
Sam Steingold (http://www.podval.org/~sds)
Support Israel's right to defend herself! <http://www.i-charity.com/go/israel>
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