Re: Suggested experimental test

[Gregory Heytings <gregory@heytings.org>]

>> I see your points, but all this is rather sad, because it means that 
>> Emacs is forever locked by what looks very much like a historical 
>> accident.
>
> I disagree, on both counts: Emacs isn't locked, and what we have is not 
> an accident.
>

I think you understood what I meant: the "C-o" key is locked in the 
default bindings, and the fact that "C-o" was bound to open-line is a 
historical accident.

>
> I disagree that it's a problem.  Customizing key bindings is an integral 
> part of using Emacs wisely and efficiently, and the sooner newcomers 
> learn that the better.  Emacs is unlike many other editors in this 
> regard.
>

Let's (again) agree to disagree then.  IMO Emacs should aim at being fully 
usable, including all its extensions, without ever having to edit 
configuration files manually (and without restarting Emacs).

Packages that need to define keys globally should have a way to do that, 
just like major and minor mode packages.

Major and minor mode packages can define keys that work out of the box in 
buffers in which these modes are enabled.  I suppose everyone would agree 
that asking users who install a foo-mode package to add

(define-key foo-mode-map (kbd "<some key>") #'foo-mode-do-something)

lines in their init configuration file (and to restart Emacs) before being 
able to use foo-mode would be cumbersome.

>
> Trying to make everybody happy with the default Emacs key bindings is a 
> dead end.  Trying to solve that unsolvable problem is a waste of energy.
>

That's not at all what I aim(ed) at.  And the problem I want(ed) to solve 
is not unsolvable, it has a simple solution.