Re: Semi-unhelpful error message given when trying to (provide 'CUA-mode)

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> writes:

> On Sat, 20 May 2006, David Kastrup wrote:
>
>>Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> writes:
>
>>> In Emacs-22.0.50, if you try to load a legacy cua-mode.el (or
>>> whatever), an eval-after-load form tells you to set the CUA option via
>>> the menu.  This is useful only to users who have a mouse and like
>>> using it.
>
>>F10 exists, and the menu bar is displayed by default.  So the menu is
>>clearly intended to be used by tty users as well.
>
> The menu bar is stupidly displayed, yes, but there's no way to
> activate its items.

F10 activates them.

> It's just a waste of space.  I didn't actually know about the F10
> binding, though I do know M-`.

So where is the problem?

>>> For the benefit of other users, M-x cua-mode should also be
>>> mentioned.
>
>>I don't think this should be necessary.  If the possibility of using
>>the menu is not apparent enough, we need to think about how to
>>change that, not how to work around it.
>
> I would resent being forced to use a menu; not having to use menus
> is a big attraction of Emacs for me.  I know I'm not alone in this,
> even if I'm not in a majority.

Irrelevant.  We don't recommend half a dozen different ways to do
things if there is one way that works.  Customizing cua-mode via the
menu works, and you can save this setting.  Calling M-x cua-mode RET,
in contrast, fails to have a permanent effect.  It is comparatively
useless.

>>Maybe the text menubar should display at its furthest right (if
>>there is still room, which should be the case in default modes)
>><f10> (if that binding is active at the point of time)?
>
> Given that there isn't a working mouse in a Linux tty, it would be
> better not to display this space waster of a menu at all.

What has the mouse to do with the menu on a tty?  Anyway, there is
t-mouse.el even on text terminals.  No idea whether it will do
something useful with the menu bar, though.

> (Personally, I disable it in my site-start.el.)

Well, you can still press F10.  It is ok if a user disables the menu
bar once he has read the deal about it.

Personally, I think we should have drop-down menus in ttys in general
instead of the tmm-menubar.  I seem to remember that this is already
the case with the MSDOS port.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum