Re: Key binding M-g should really be goto-line

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

jari.aalto@cante.net (Jari Aalto+mail.emacs) writes:

>     http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2004-03/msg00642.html
>     From: Richard Stallman
>
>     "I want Emacs to move in the direction of doing word processing.  It
>     may take years, but we will get there.  Then commands to specify faces
>     will become important, and will need a good key binding.
>
>     I chose the M-g binding for that reason, and the reason continues to
>     have force.  So I don't intend to change that binding."
>
> Please, I have been watching this future over 10 years now and in the mean
> time hundreds or thousands developers / code writers / designers / students
> / teachers are all using
>
>     M-g to mean goto-line

I'd second that.  And the reason is that it is my opinion that even in
the text processing case M-g has little to none mnemonic value, and
more in the context of text processing functions is needed, anyway,
than just font selection.  If we go that lane, it will more probably
require opening a modifier like "super" or "alt" for it.  Most
keyboards by now readily have enough modifiers available.  We will
need a terminal shortcut for terminals that don't have it, like for
Meta.  Esc-Esc would be one possibility.  It is easier to type than
M-g, and it has more "this is a new class of commands" connotations.
The two bindings already starting with Esc Esc would not suffer much
(The Esc M-: binding is available as M-:, anyway).

I think that would be a good escape route for text processing
commands.  I certainly would like to see M-g for goto-line.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum