Re: Recentish C-s M-y change

[Filipp Gunbin <fgunbin@fastmail.fm>]

On 29/12/2020 21:20 +0200, Juri Linkov wrote:

>>> Such changes of keybindings are not something new: in 2011 we changed
>>> 'C-s M-y' from 'isearch-yank-kill' to 'isearch-yank-pop',
>>
>> But this continued to work for the most frequent case of yanking last
>> kill?
>
> If 'C-s C-y' is easier to type than 'C-s M-y', shouldn't then
> more beneficial to have 'C-s C-y' the most frequent case of
> yanking last kill?

It's not easier.  Some time ago I learned to type all modifiers with one
hand, and a letter with another.  This sometimes may be slower, but in
the end it's more comfortable, as there's no need to press distant keys
by one hand.  With this way of typing, C-s C-y and C-s M-y are
equivalent.

> A good example of the change for better that makes these keybindings
> more consistent and easier to use:
>
> C-M-y isearch-yank-char
> C-M-d isearch-del-char
>
> and
>
>   C-w isearch-yank-word-or-char
> C-M-w isearch-yank-symbol-or-char
>
> If it was painful at first, how easy it was to adapt?

These are good changes IMO, they make sense, it's just that I would
prefer to have the new binding while preserving the old, so I could
re-learn smootly.  I still occasionally type the wrong key.

>>> Of course, if after trying 'C-s C-y', you'd still prefer the old 'C-s M-y',
>>> we could revert this change, but this would be a step backwards.
>>
>> The new workflow is "C-s C-y M-y M-y...", the old one is "C-s M-y
>> M-y...".  If we could make the first M-y just insert the last kill, then
>> both workflows can live together, no?  It's just the prompt after C-s
>> M-y which annoys me currently.
>
> Do you suggest to show the prompt only after 'C-s M-y M-y'?
> OT1H, it would have an unexpected effect for users who expect
> 'C-s M-y M-y M-y ...' to continue inserting more items from
> the kill-ring.  OTOH, for users who want the prompt it would be
> too inconvenient first to insert the last kill then show
> the prompt.

No, I was suggesting that the promting command be put on some other key
binding, like C-s TAB maybe (it inserts TAB currently, but that can be
done with C-s C-q TAB).

And both C-s C-y M-y M-y.. and C-s M-y M-y... may do the same - insert
last kill, then continue with previous ones.  This way everybody can
learn new binding.

> Ok, since everyone wants the old keybinding back, I'll restore
> isearch-yank-pop to old code, and also add a new command
> 'isearch-yank-from-kill-ring', but unbound because there is
> no free key in isearch-mode.

Thanks!