One opinion -

I don't much care what bindings you offer by default for it, provided you don't just enable them by default when the library is simply loaded.

Instead, put them behind some clear, explicit user choice.

A good way to do that is to have a user option that puts them into effect. Another good way is to have users put them into effect by turning on a minor mode, i.e., give them minor-mode bindings.

From: Hovav ShachamSent: Friday, June 28, 2024 12:47 PM

On Wed, Jun 26, 2024, at 8:57 AM, Daniel Colascione wrote:

I'm the original author of windmove.el; apologies for weighing in late in the discussion.

The windmove functionality has been bound to shift-<arrow> or alt-<arrow> since the late '80s (in the BRIEF editor), and since the late '90s in Emacs, through `windmove-default-keybindings'.  Would deprecating these bindings and assigning entirely new ones be a net win?

In BRIEF, <f1> followed by <arrow> was another binding for selecting a window by direction, and <f2>, <f3>, and <f4> followed by <arrow> would resize, create, or delete a window by direction, respectively.  If we think that windmove functionality needs to be in the default keymap, perhaps these bindings could be replicated?  Then `windmove-default-keybindings' could become `windmove-enable-quick-keybindings' or similar.

(For reference, the BRIEF bindings are described on pages 84--89 of the BRIEF 3.1 user manual, available at http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/borland/BRIEF_for_DOS_and_OS2_Version_3.1_Users_Guide_1992.pdf)

-hs.