Re: PROPOSAL: Repurpose one key and reserve it for third-party packages

["Philip K." <philipk@posteo.net>]

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Gregory Heytings <gregory@heytings.org> writes:

>>> No, with one control key you have all characters (not just letters,
>>> also digits and symbols), plus all C-something, plus all
>>> M-something, plus C-M-something.  With one control key and its
>>> corrsponding meta key you multiply that number by two.
>>
>> Ah ok, I get what you mean. Does it really make that much of a
>> difference? I'm not sure how many packages you are expecting would
>> add default bindings (or how conflict resolution should happen), but
>> do you really need more than 26?
>>
>
> That reminds me the famous "640 kb should be enough for anyone" ;-)
> Indeed, 26 letters is not enough.  Magit has three global commands, 
> Org-mode has three, and Bookmark+ has three keymaps.  With just three
> packages you've already used 35% of the available keys.  I hope you 
> understand that it can't be a long-term solution.  Moreover, AFAIU,
> packages cannot automatically bind their commands to C-c LETTER keys 
> anyway: these keys are strictly reserved for users in their personal
> configuration files.

I think that's the pessimistic way to look at it, the optimistic one
would be to say that you only need 35% of the key-space. I don't have a
feeling for how many global keys people bind by default, one would have
to study public configurations to find out. But I still remain sceptical
that -- compared to memory usage -- that need for keys is rising that
much.

>> I only know of Magit that does it, and as I have said before, I
>> think it is a mistake and unfriendly. But that still doesn't answer
>> the question. Why do you think that users expect it -- not the image
>> that magit has it it's users.
>>
>
> Being a programmer, I can understand your viewpoint.  As a user I
> can't. With M-x load-theme <something>, the user interface changes.

Well I install a package with M-x package-install, right? Not M-x
package-init or M-x package-load. When I install a program via my
package manager, I don't expect it to start immediately. It is just
expected that it is ready. And package-install does just that, and I
hope it is not just me, but that's what I would guess a command named
"package install" would do.

> What makes keybindings so different from user interface colors that
> they should absolutely not be touched when a package is loaded, say
> with M-x global-foobar-mode, and require an explicit manual
> configuration by the user?

A theme doesn't activate when it is installed or loaded, but when it is
activated. In the same way, I argue, a command shouldn't bind itself
until it is bound. Note that I don't insist that this has to be done
by editing your init.el (as shown in the patch from a few messages
before). I just think that loading a feature/package should attempt to
just load the package, without changing the UI/UX of the system.

> Do you also think it's a mistake and unfriendly if a package installs
> a menu item?  If not, what makes keybindings fundamentally different
> from menu items?

Do you mean a menu-bar-mode item? Yes, loading a package still shouldn't
change anything, activating a mode should add the menu item, so that it
is clear to the user what caused the change, and how it can be reversed.

-- 
	Philip K.

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