From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Kastrup Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Options menu Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 11:31:58 +0100 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1111144311 23646 80.91.229.2 (18 Mar 2005 11:11:51 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 11:11:51 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Mar 18 12:11:49 2005 Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DCFNy-0006db-L6 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 18 Mar 2005 12:11:23 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DCFeQ-0003dL-R7 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 18 Mar 2005 06:28:22 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1DCF0x-0007fX-L8 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 18 Mar 2005 05:47:35 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1DCF0u-0007bo-F5 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 18 Mar 2005 05:47:33 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DCF0s-0007QF-Pm for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 18 Mar 2005 05:47:31 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.164] (helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1DCElw-0007Vs-81 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 18 Mar 2005 05:32:04 -0500 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lola.goethe.zz) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1DCElv-0007Vo-GG; Fri, 18 Mar 2005 05:32:03 -0500 Original-To: storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) In-Reply-To: (Kim F. Storm's message of "Fri, 18 Mar 2005 09:54:27 +0100") User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.0.50 (gnu/linux) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org X-MailScanner-To: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:34711 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:34711 storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) writes: > With the recent addition of "blinking cursor" to the options > menu, it has become even more dis-organized than before. > > > I suggest to rearrange it slightly to make the structure > more logical and useful, by placing frequently used > items at the top and "one-time" customizations later. Uh, that's not "logical", that is at best "useful", and for a doubtful value of "useful": after all, a logical grouping will save people time also by letting them skip over uninteresting sections. > OPTIONS > ====================================== > Customize Emacs > > -------------------------------------- > Language Environment (Mule) > > Set Font/fontset > -------------------------------------- > Show/Hide > > [] Blinking Cursor > [] Syntax Highlighting > [] Paren Match Highlighting > [] Active Region Highlighting > -------------------------------------- I don't think putting submenus at the top is a good idea, since the usual menu semantics imply that some of those menus tend to open in the process of trying to select options below them. Customization menus tend to be at the bottom of menu stacks, anyway, for almost all applications I know. > [] Truncate Long Lines in this Buffer > [] Word Wrap in Text Modes > [] Case-insensitive Search > [] C-x/C-c/C-v cut-and-paste (CUA) > -------------------------------------- The order of the above is completely arbitrary. We have some highlighting stuff, then we have the buffer-specific long line stuff, then we have some formatting specific "in text modes", then comes a completely unrelated search option, and then again an editing mode speciality. This is pretty much chaotic. > [] Use Directory Names in Buffer Names Looks like a candidate for "Appearance". Appearance could be structured into overall appearance (frame stuff, cursor, menubar, toolbar, speedbar) and detailed appearance (dirnames in buffers, file name shadow, syntax highlighting). > [] Save Places in Files between Sessions > [] Automatic File De/compression I'd remove the latter point from the menus and enable it by default. > -------------------------------------- > [] Enter Debugger on Error > [] Enter Debugger on Quit/C-g > -------------------------------------- Not sure whether this is a good idea to put in a user menu. It makes it somewhat easier to give instructions for generating backtraces in the case of tracking down a bug. But it also is clutter. > Personally, I would also like to rename "Show/Hide" to "Appearence" > and move "Blinking Cursor" under that heading, but that's less > important. I think now that Emacs has a --no-blinking-cursor command line option that is also given by --help, those people that can't stand the cursor long enough to configure it off have a reasonable escape path. So I'd move the Blinking Cursor to Appearance. We should do what is reasonably possible to reduce clutter. -- David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum