Re: not good proposal: "C-z <letter>" reserved for users

[Robert Thorpe <rt@robertthorpeconsulting.com>]

Dmitry Gutov <dgutov@yandex.ru> writes:

> On 12.02.2021 10:10, Robert Thorpe wrote:
>> I think that user-friendliness is beneficial.  It would help with
>> that if packages could bind some keys by default.
>
> The current tradition is that a package provides a major or minor mode 
> (or several), puts one of them in their init file, and *those* install 
> some default keymaps.
>
> auto-mode-alist entries, however, can be added through autoloads.

Yes.  But I don't think that solves the problems that Gregory Heyting
and Drew Adams are talking about.

Firstly, it can't do anything about changes in keybindings in future
Emacs versions.  Drew tells us that Emacs has recently mapped "C-x x",
"C-x p" and "C-x /".  I'm using Emacs 27.1, so all of those must have
been mapped for Emacs 28 (or perhaps the version after that).

The author of a third party package can't easily deal with that.  What if
their minor mode used "C-x x"?  In that case it will remove the keymaps
of a core feature (or the core feature will remove it's keymap).

As Gregory Heyting has pointed out, what about packages that are not
modes?  Not every package is a minor mode or major mode.  So, how should
other types of package behave?

Lastly, the usability issue is still there.  I think beginners find this
kind of thing difficult.  These days there are lots of Emacs "starter
kits" that claim to make Emacs simpler.  A lot of what they do is
configuring third-party packages.

Philip Kaludercic suggested some code for prompting users before mapping
keys.  I think that's a good idea.

BR,
Robert Thorpe