bug#45625: C-p (previous-line) now wipes out windows, if misaimed

bug#45625: C-p (previous-line) now wipes out windows, if misaimed

[積丹尼 Dan Jacobson]

Just the other day I noticed windows disappearing. It turns out that
"ESC ESC ESC" has been made even more super powered, by adding "or go
back to just one window (by deleting all but the selected window)" to
the many things it does.

Well it turns out ESC is also ^[.
And p is next to [ on many keyboards.
So ^p is next to ^[.
And ^p is/was the main way to do previous-line (go up).
So if your fingers aren't aimed correctly, then holding down CTRL+P will
not send the cursor marching up the screen, but will instead wipe out
your other windows!

Try it. Hold down ^[.

All your other windows will go away.

(When you finally release your finger, in the minibuffer you might see
"ESC-" or "ESC ESC-" or nothing at all, depending if you hit e.g., 31,
32, or 33 mis-aimed ^P's.)

Conclusion: keyboard-escape-quit should not also delete other windows.
There is already C-x 1 (delete-other-windows) for that!

Yes, one could just say "Start using the arrow keys instead of ^p for
crying out loud." But for older users it is too late for that.

emacs-version "27.1"

bug#45625: C-p (previous-line) now wipes out windows, if misaimed

[Philipp Stephani]

Am So., 3. Jan. 2021 um 15:41 Uhr schrieb 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson
<jidanni@jidanni.org>:
>
> Just the other day I noticed windows disappearing. It turns out that
> "ESC ESC ESC" has been made even more super powered, by adding "or go
> back to just one window (by deleting all but the selected window)" to
> the many things it does.

This functionality has been present since keyboard-escape-quit was
introduced in 1994 (commit c66587feff67603818ea49fe4b7bfafe77a93e89,
Emacs 19.29).

bug#45625: C-p (previous-line) now wipes out windows, if misaimed

[積丹尼 Dan Jacobson]

>>>>> "PS" == Philipp Stephani <p.stephani2@gmail.com> writes:

PS> This functionality has been present since keyboard-escape-quit was
PS> introduced in 1994 (commit c66587feff67603818ea49fe4b7bfafe77a93e89,
PS> Emacs 19.29).

OK, then maybe it is now that I own a wider monitor that now fits left
and right windows, that I am noticing it.

Anyway, some users, like me, still use ^p^p^p... so it is too dangerous.

bug#45625: C-p (previous-line) now wipes out windows, if misaimed

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > > Just the other day I noticed windows disappearing. It turns out that
  > > "ESC ESC ESC" has been made even more super powered, by adding "or go
  > > back to just one window (by deleting all but the selected window)" to
  > > the many things it does.

  > This functionality has been present since keyboard-escape-quit was
  > introduced in 1994 (commit c66587feff67603818ea49fe4b7bfafe77a93e89,
  > Emacs 19.29).

The reason we did this is that some beginners made two windows and
didn't understand why the screen was split.  They also did not
understand how to get "out" of that "mode".  So we set up ESC ESC ESC
to "get you out of anything" in Emacs, including the split screen.

Jidanni, we could add an option to tell ESC ESC ESC not to mess with
the window layout, for users who do know the C-x 1 command.

-- 
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)

bug#45625: C-p (previous-line) now wipes out windows, if misaimed

[積丹尼 Dan Jacobson]

>>>>> "RMS" == Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:
RMS> Jidanni, we could add an option to tell ESC ESC ESC not to mess with
RMS> the window layout, for users who do know the C-x 1 command.

It's a deal! Please do.

bug#45625: C-p (previous-line) now wipes out windows, if misaimed

[Jose A. Ortega Ruiz]

On Mon, Jan 04 2021, Richard Stallman wrote:

[...]

> Jidanni, we could add an option to tell ESC ESC ESC not to mess with
> the window layout, for users who do know the C-x 1 command.

FWIW, i would certainly make use or that option (the triple C-[ scenario
has happened to me many times, and i learned about winner-undo just to
be able to revert quickly its effects).

bug#45625: C-p (previous-line) now wipes out windows, if misaimed

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > > Jidanni, we could add an option to tell ESC ESC ESC not to mess with
  > > the window layout, for users who do know the C-x 1 command.

  > FWIW, i would certainly make use or that option (the triple C-[ scenario
  > has happened to me many times, and i learned about winner-undo just to
  > be able to revert quickly its effects).

Want to write a patch to create the option, with the default
being the current behavior?

-- 
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)

bug#45625: C-p (previous-line) now wipes out windows, if misaimed

[Jose A. Ortega Ruiz]

On Tue, Jan 05 2021, Richard Stallman wrote:

> [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
> [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
> [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]
>
>   > > Jidanni, we could add an option to tell ESC ESC ESC not to mess with
>   > > the window layout, for users who do know the C-x 1 command.
>
>   > FWIW, i would certainly make use or that option (the triple C-[ scenario
>   > has happened to me many times, and i learned about winner-undo just to
>   > be able to revert quickly its effects).
>
> Want to write a patch to create the option, with the default
> being the current behavior?

i just took a look, and there is already a variable,
buffer-quit-function, to set up a function to call instead of
delete-other-windows.  i suspect it was introduced with something like
addressing this problem in mind (i think it's not used anywhere else).

for instance, just setting

    (setq buffer-quit-function (lambda () t))

fixes the issue for me.

jao
-- 
I have lived in this world just long enough to look carefully the
second time into things that I am most certain of the first
time. -Josh Billings, columnist and humorist (21 Apr 1818-1885)

bug#45625: ESC ESC ESC deletes other windows

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

"Jose A. Ortega Ruiz" <jao@gnu.org> writes:

> i just took a look, and there is already a variable,
> buffer-quit-function, to set up a function to call instead of
> delete-other-windows.  i suspect it was introduced with something like
> addressing this problem in mind (i think it's not used anywhere else).
>
> for instance, just setting
>
>     (setq buffer-quit-function (lambda () t))
>
> fixes the issue for me.

OK, then there doesn't seem to be anything to do here, and I'm closing
this bug report.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#45625: ESC ESC ESC

[積丹尼 Dan Jacobson]

> for instance, just setting
>
>     (setq buffer-quit-function (lambda () t))
>
> fixes the issue for me.

LI> OK, then there doesn't seem to be anything to do here, and I'm closing
LI> this bug report.

But the ESC ESC ESC documentation should mention this.

Else the next user will just file the same report!