From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Dan Nicolaescu Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: position on changing defaults? Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:37:33 -0800 Message-ID: <200803050637.m256bXL3008361@sallyv1.ics.uci.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1204699122 6778 80.91.229.12 (5 Mar 2008 06:38:42 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2008 06:38:42 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Stefan Monnier , Chong Yidong Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Mar 05 07:39:09 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1JWnHA-0005np-Au for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:38:52 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1JWnGd-0000tf-0r for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:38:19 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1JWnGX-0000sd-Ca for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:38:13 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1JWnGV-0000qx-5x for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:38:12 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1JWnGV-0000qs-2V for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:38:11 -0500 Original-Received: from sallyv1.ics.uci.edu ([128.195.1.109]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA1:24) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1JWnGU-0008Bc-Kw for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:38:10 -0500 X-ICS-MailScanner-Watermark: 1205303854.8416@3sMs82OU28/bVARCEVT4uQ Original-Received: from mothra.ics.uci.edu (mothra.ics.uci.edu [128.195.6.93]) by sallyv1.ics.uci.edu (8.13.7+Sun/8.13.7) with ESMTP id m256bXL3008361; Tue, 4 Mar 2008 22:37:33 -0800 (PST) Mail-Followup-To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-Lines: 45 X-ICS-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-ICS-MailScanner-SpamCheck: not spam, SpamAssassin (score=-1.44, required 5, autolearn=disabled, ALL_TRUSTED -1.44) X-ICS-MailScanner-From: dann@mothra.ics.uci.edu X-detected-kernel: by monty-python.gnu.org: Solaris 10 (beta) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:91359 Archived-At: Hi, It would be interesting to know the new maintainers opinion on changing some of the current default settings. One type of changes would be to make emacs more similar to other current desktop applications. Another type would be to provide more functionality by default. It seems that doing the above two things would make emacs more easy to use for a larger number of people. Emacs has a lot of functionality available, but it's hard to find out about it. Making it easier to use some of the available functionality helps a log of users. One reason to ask if there's a policy in this direction is that absolutely ANY change will make someone scream bloody murder. (just remember that there was resistance even to turning on global-font-lock-mode by default, which is something that the vast majority of users want). And people that oppose change tend to be extremely vocal. Obviously any change request has to be judged on it's own merit, but knowing if there's a clear direction would help. Here are some examples of changes that could be made: - transient-mark, selection with Shift-arrow keys - show-paren-mode on by default - iswitchb-mode on by default - bind ibuffer to C-x C-b - hide-ifdef-mode on by default for C/C++/objc - flyspell-mode on by default for text-mode Note that the above are just examples of things that can be done, they are not given now in order to start discussing doing them. That can be done later in separate threads (unless the maintainers want to approve any of them on the spot :-) Can you (Stefan and Yidong) please state your opinion about this? Thanks --dan