From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Yuri Khan Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Should Text motion commands have no menu entry? Date: Sun, 17 May 2015 21:39:18 +0600 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1431877203 24423 80.91.229.3 (17 May 2015 15:40:03 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 17 May 2015 15:40:03 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Emacs developers To: vaidheeswaran.chinnaraju@gmail.com Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun May 17 17:40:01 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Yu0fW-0006gC-6f for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 17 May 2015 17:39:58 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:37790 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Yu0fU-0003A2-UB for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 17 May 2015 11:39:56 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:35837) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Yu0fI-00039t-GV for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 17 May 2015 11:39:45 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Yu0fF-0004zK-9f for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 17 May 2015 11:39:44 -0400 Original-Received: from mail-la0-x236.google.com ([2a00:1450:4010:c03::236]:36776) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Yu0fF-0004z0-1L for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 17 May 2015 11:39:41 -0400 Original-Received: by lagv1 with SMTP id v1so186307081lag.3 for ; Sun, 17 May 2015 08:39:39 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:from:date:message-id :subject:to:cc:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=0bf0dSH1XD2W1OXPWy5+8b+0h8N7sUo26TmgBBATMLc=; b=ETA+Jlywr19Wz5vFrAgxHk5xUPG8c7mflieRiFOPGhHA7O227bTPsJ2goqksgEGL33 eoXfyThmUxfEIv8sR8+1lDFBB+E34aIGmBKnC8vdCjp0O0KlY0n+Dofi7xq+SBu9X8tG dMW1aRzBnYDL0bFHau4cnaKKgvuC7UKo/vI4U60ApkDFWDCx3R9g6c3JxgsqieeYoEQf ylJGty02xopzirlSEsnd914g50nxZQ3XVM/aVWCjoVnvytLYmzblbKuSZZvj+T6gB17a UPd/cikZHgyVajHct10fFt4CavS36XKidwuUKYcd5RH8ag+Mm4qNXelAnFYyg+B3CcQO Rg2A== X-Received: by 10.152.206.103 with SMTP id ln7mr14267135lac.40.1431877179432; Sun, 17 May 2015 08:39:39 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: by 10.25.43.65 with HTTP; Sun, 17 May 2015 08:39:18 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: X-Google-Sender-Auth: GOJ-OTl21ItJoizBoufO_lMZm8I X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Error: Malformed IPv6 address (bad octet value). X-Received-From: 2a00:1450:4010:c03::236 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:186555 Archived-At: On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 2:18 AM, Vaidheeswaran C wrote: > I was looking at the http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/tour/ hoping to > get some inspiration for my "Emacs Primer". Man of the text > navigation commands do NOT have a menu entry. Is it a deliberate > decision? If not, can the situation be changed. Menus have two functions: * The executive function allows users to invoke a command if or when they forget its keybinding or command name. * The discovery function alerts users that a certain command exists, and tells them its keybinding. Menus also have a cost: * As the number of menu items grows, the menu as a whole becomes harder to grasp. For cursor motion commands, especially such fine-grained ones as =E2=80=9Cforward-char=E2=80=9D, the executive function of the menu is very inefficient. No one in their right mind will perform cursor motion by repeatedly choosing e.g. Edit | Go to | Next character. The discovery function is also diminished. Everybody knows that a text editor *does* have cursor motion commands, and expects them to have certain keybindings. (These happen to be arrows and editing-block keys, not the supposedly super-efficient C-f C-b C-n C-p C-a C-e C-v M-v. This does not actually matter.) Additionally, the discovery function of the menu is duplicated by the context help, which is called by F1 m in Emacs, and in other applications usually by F1 followed by navigating the help index. In the name of reducing the cognitive cost of the menu as a whole, ubiquitous commands =E2=80=94 such as cursor movement and instances of self-insert-command for each of the 1114112 Unicode codepoints =E2=80=94 should not have corresponding menu items.