Re: Binding F11 and F12 to buffer-switching and file-saving bydefault

[Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>]

On 31 Jan 2007, rms@gnu.org wrote:

>>> Multiplying bindings for common commands adds confusion IMHO.
>>
>> Hmm. Perhaps that is true. (To the rest of you: Do you agree?)
>
> FWIW, I do. And it does more than add confusion: it raises a shaggy mane
> against Occam's Razor.
>
> I don't think it is useful to argue about this.  The way I plan to
> deal with this issue is based on whether there is any general pattern
> of usage of these keys in other apps.  (That's why I asked.)
> Unless there is one, I'm going to leave these undefined.

Based on my experience, everyone loves to redefine F keys.  They are
very handy, and Emacs shouldn't touch them.

Common usage has no pattern for those keys.  F1 is "help," of course.
F2 is often "save."  The classic Norton Commander gave us file
operations on the F keys that are nice:

F3 = view
F4 = edit
F5 = copy
F6 = move
F7 = mkdir
F8 = delete
F10 = quit

A lot of users like those bindings (myself included) and they are in
the GNU Midnight Commander and in mc.el/nc.el (neither is a part of
Emacs).  They could be useful as an optional feature in Dired, for
example.

> Anyway, now is not the time to change it.

Agreed, I just wanted to mention some "classic" keybindings.

Ted