From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Lars Hansen Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Default Emacs keybindings Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 12:32:57 +0200 Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: <40961FD9.4040902@math.ku.dk> References: <20040503092848.7F3BFBEDE9@imf.math.ku.dk> NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1083580623 19769 80.91.224.253 (3 May 2004 10:37:03 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 10:37:03 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Mon May 03 12:36:56 2004 Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1BKaoi-0000cN-00 for ; Mon, 03 May 2004 12:36:56 +0200 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1BKaoi-0005Kf-00 for ; Mon, 03 May 2004 12:36:56 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1BKaoM-0005Gi-O4 for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Mon, 03 May 2004 06:36:34 -0400 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1BKamV-00052p-FS for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 03 May 2004 06:34:39 -0400 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1BKalj-0004nG-H9 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 03 May 2004 06:34:23 -0400 Original-Received: from [130.225.103.32] (helo=imf.math.ku.dk) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1BKal1-00049b-12 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 03 May 2004 06:33:07 -0400 Original-Received: by imf.math.ku.dk (Postfix, from userid 73) id 2E598BEEB2; Mon, 3 May 2004 12:33:05 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from imf (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by spamwall (Postfix) with ESMTP id 15073BEEAA for ; Mon, 3 May 2004 12:33:01 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]) by imf.math.ku.dk (MailMonitor for SMTP v1.2.2 ) ; Mon, 3 May 2004 12:33:00 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from math.ku.dk (pc33.math.ku.dk [10.2.1.33]) by imf.math.ku.dk (Postfix) with ESMTP id C96D8BEEAA for ; Mon, 3 May 2004 12:33:00 +0200 (CEST) User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113 X-Accept-Language: da, en-us, en Original-To: emacs-devel@gnu.org In-Reply-To: <20040503092848.7F3BFBEDE9@imf.math.ku.dk> X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.4 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:22602 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:22602 There has been a lot of discussion about which keybindings are the best, the fastest, the most convenient, the most intuitive etc. Even which keyboard to use. To me, one thing is clear: People won't ever agree on this, it is matter of taste. And why should they? IMO, it is old-fashioned to expect users to adapt to computer programs, instead computer programs should adapt to the users. And since users have so different taste, it should be possible in Emacs to change the entire keymapping as easily as a choice in the options menu. If this was possible, it does not matter too much which keymapping is the default (the name of this thread). Even newbies can do that. I know that there are some compatibility modes available, vi, crisp and in particular cua-mode. But these modes just try to fit some keybindings into the classic Emacs keymapping scheme rather than define a completely new scheme. As an example, cua-mode goes into a lot of trouble to make C-x do cut at as well as what it does in the classic Emacs setup. That is, with all due respect for cua-mode, not the perfect solution. In my dreams Emacs comes with two ore more keybinding schemes that one can choose in the option menu. Moreover, they are easy to modify so you can create your own one. Do you agree with me that this would be good? What are the problems in doing it? I know that manuals are a problem. But at least the ones displayed in Emacs (info) could simply lookup the current keybinding.