Re: delete-selection-mode as default

[hw <hw@adminart.net>]

Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:

> [...]
> The only argument I saw here (unless I've forgotten already)
> in favor of it being off (by default or not) is that when it is on
> a user (new or old) can too easily accidentally delete text.
>
> (Some added "irretrievably", but I haven't seen that claim
> supported yet.)

This is a misunderstanding.  You need to distinguish between the
selection itself and the contents of the selection.  The contents
usually aren't likely to get lost forever.

The selection itself *is* lost irretrievably when you make a movement
without holding the key (like Shift or Ctrl) you need to press to
select.  So far, I've never seen a software that had an undo for this,
and it has annoyed me many times.

It's another example for the design flaw of making a mistake worse
rather than protecting the user from it.

> [...]
> So again, what's the advantage to it being off? (It's not a
> rhetorical question.) Is there really some useful "option"
> that its being off offers? Does that give you additional
> choice or control?

That depends on what you consider as "off".

Under "normal" circumstances, "off" seems to mean that backspace deletes
a region only when it is active, and that other keystrokes tend to
deactivate an active region before they insert themselves into the
buffer.

That means it's not really off.  If it was really off, backspace would
not delete a region when it's active, and other keystrokes would
neither deactivate an active region, nor insert themselves into the
buffer, but they would make Emacs beep.

So "really off" would give the user maximum protection against mistakes
that could otherwise lead to loosing the selection itself, its contents
or both.  That is an advantage.

The other advantage is that users may be glad to see a behaviour which
they end up finding better and might have never discovered if it wasn't
the default.  When more users appreciate it, they might urge the
developers of other software to implement something similar.


In any case, the whole concept of regions could use an overhaul.