Re: [CVS] f7, f8 bound..

[Juanma Barranquero <lektu@terra.es>]

On 28 Aug 2002 12:58:36 +0200, storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) wrote:

> I don't understand... you like the binding to function keys, but you
> don't like that to be easily accessible to new users.  Why not?

Because I'm not convinced they need that access more than they do to
bs-cycle-next and bs-cycle-previous, for example. And the F-keys are
mostly a user convenience, to be used as he sees fit.

In my experience, most new Emacs users (of the kind that barely read the
tutorial, if anything) have trouble knowing how to switch buffers, and
having a way to rotate between them in an easy, just-one-keystroke-away
key, is good for them. They don't use many buffers anyway.

But still bs.el doesn't bind F-keys by default, it just suggests doing
so to F9/F10. Why? Because the binding is a matter of taste, and because
a user is not going to know how to use bs anyway without reading at
least a bit of documentation (and then they can copy the suggested
bindings and put F5/F6 or whatever instead of F9/F10 without problem).

Using macros seems natural to you and me, but users who don't know how
to bind a command to a key are not going to use macros either. If they
take the pain to read about them, they'll find the bit of documentation
that says how to bind them to whatever they want. Who knows, perhaps
they'll agree with you in that having kmacro in F-keys is good, but they
strongly and religiously believe the right F-keys for macros are F11/F12!
:)

> To me, the function key binding issue seems more religious than practical.

As most keybinding issues are.

> Really ?
> 
> Hm, yes.  The documentation for C-h k f3 should be improved to briefly
> explain what keyboard macros are all about.

And perhaps refer them to the relevant Info node... :)


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