RE: Context menus and mouse-3 [was: Changes for emacs 28]

[Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> > read `Mouse Commands' if you haven't
> > already, and give it a try.
> 
> Mouse support is poor in Emacs, this is the reason
> why I don't use the mouse in Emacs.

I disagree that mouse support is poor in Emacs.

I use a mouse in several other applications much
of the workday, and Emacs mouse support is superior
in every respect I'm aware of.  But I'm no expert
on the use of mice.  And perhaps the mouse support
in the apps I use is not a reference.

> > Double-click (`mouse-1') on a word, then click
> > `mouse-3' on another word. The selection picks up
> > whole words, from the first through the last you
> > clicked.
> 
> In other apps, the same is achieved by double-click
> (`mouse-1') on a word, then double-click the same
> (`mouse-1') on another word while holding down the Shift key.

And that's better why?  Having to use both the
keyboard and the mouse?

(One of the arguments made by a few people in
this discussion was that `C-mouse-3' makes you
do that to get a right-click menu.)

> > Triple-click a line, then click `mouse-3' on
> > another line.  The selection picks up whole lines.
> 
> In other apps, triple-click a line, then again triple-click
> on another line while holding down the Shift key.

Both keyboard and mouse again.  Better?  Not IMO.
 
> But what if you need first to select a line, then extend
> the selection to a word?  In other apps, triple-click a line,
> then double-click `mouse-1' on a word while holding down the Shift key.
> In Emacs, this is impossible.

Granted.  But again, both keyboard and mouse.

We could provide a keyboard + mouse combination
for such use cases if that were a common need.

> Also in other apps Shift+F10 opens the context menu,
> but why not in Emacs?

That's orthogonal.  Nothing prevents also having
a keyboard key sequence to open a context menu.
(Presumably the "location" it refers to would
be point.)

The impetus for this discussion was expectations
of new users to get a context menu on `mouse-3'.
(But newbies are not the only reason for such a
feature.)

> > [I'd like to see the double-clicking extended, so
> > that if you double-click a paren in Lisp it picks
> > up the full sexp, and if you then `mouse-3' another
> > sexp it picks up full sexps in the interval.  But
> > this is a bit trickier.]
> 
> It would be easier to use this as: double-click a paren to select
> a sexp, then double-click another paren to select another sexp
> while holding down the Shift key.

Another keyboard + mouse mix.

[What I described already works for simple cases, BTW.
E.g. double-click a paren in Lisp (open or close),
then `mouse-3' another paren, to select up the lists
and intervening sexps.]