Re: Confused by y-or-n-p

[Gregory Heytings via "Emacs development discussions." <emacs-devel@gnu.org>]

>> I agree with you, but I think you are missing Richard's main point: any 
>> significant UI change should either require setting a variable, or 
>> provide a way to disable the new behavior / re-enable to old behavior.
>
> I don't think that was Richard's point: we always go to great lengths to 
> make it possible to get back the old behavior (even for changes where 
> the impact is quite minor).
>
> E.g. with respect to `y-or-n-p`, I think we already all agree that there 
> should be a way to recover the previous "modal" behavior.  We just need 
> someone to implement it (ideally while still preserving the improvement 
> of the new minibuffer-based code).
>

No always, alas.  With respect to y-or-n-p, there is now indeed an 
agreement that there should be a way to recover the old behavior.  But 
IIUC, Richard's point is that this possibility should have been present 
since the beginning, when the new behavior was introduced, without waiting 
for objections.

What happened is (1) behavior A is removed and replaced by behavior B, (2) 
enough people object this change, (2) behavior B is implemented again.

What could have happened instead is (1) behavior B is implemented, next to 
behavior A, with a way to choose between them, (2) at some point, possibly 
immediately, the default behavior is changed from A to B, (3) if after 
some time it becomes clear that behavior A is not used anymore, it is 
deprecated, and later again removed.

Having both behaviors available at the same time is also, I believe, a 
necessary condition for a fruitful comparison and discussion.  Otherwise 
the discussion is about the merits of a removed behavior vs. the new 
behavior instead of about the merits of a behavior A vs. a behavior B.