Re: "whether the global keymap C-x 4 will be replaced by a command,"

[Richard Stallman]

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  > > For consistency, C-h k C-x 4 C-f should show the help for C-x 4 C-f.
  > > That is find-file-other-window.

  > A special handling of prefix commands could be added to the
  > implementation of 'C-h k'.

  > Then instead of saying that the command is 'find-file-other-window',
  > it could say: "the command is like 'find-file' but displays the buffer
  > in another window."

That would address this issue.

  > > C-x 4 C-f is an important command -- don't break it!

  > Its effect should remain the same (displaying the output buffer in
  > another window), but the command namespace will be cleaner by removing
  > duplicated commands with '-other-window' and '-other-frame' suffixes.

I see.

That would handle C-x 4 C-f ok, but someone pointed out there is also
C-x 4 f.  People would not like it if that started to do C-x f in another
window.

So I think there needs to be a exception list, a way of defining a few
key sequences starting with C-x 4 so that they depart from the usual
rule and maintain backwards compatibility instead.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)