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

[Gregory Heytings <gregory@heytings.org>]

>> I have no opinion about whether it is better for packages to install 
>> global bindings at installation time, at loading time or at activation 
>> time.  At first sight it seems to me that all three could make sense, 
>> depending on the package.
>
> I do think that the problems are relevant, because they show that 
> activation at install- or load-time are bad style. The only real choice 
> is activation-time, but that won't work for examples like Magit, since 
> they are not activated using modes. I'm not sure how I'd feel about a 
> magit-global-mode...
>

As I said, I have no opinion about which moment is better.  But it seems 
to me that "the only real choice is activation-time" is wrong.  It depends 
on how much that package modifies the user interface.  Magit is a good 
example in that respect: nothing is changed, except three global key 
bindings.  There are other cases, imagine a package implementing a global 
command to query the stock price of the string under point to display it 
in the minibuffer.  It would make sense that installing that package 
binds, say, "C-\alpha $" to its command "display-stock-price", if that key 
is still available, without asking the user whether they really want that 
binding.  Other package authors may prefer to delay that binding until the 
package is loaded with a "require" or "load".  Yet others may prefer to 
delay that binding until the package is explicitly activated with M-x or 
in the users' init file.

>
> The only real solution that I see is something along the lines of what I 
> recommended: Packages suggest customizations, and package-install may 
> either ignore, ask for confirmation or accept them by default, if there 
> are no problems with what is suggested (eg. collisions).
>

And that solution cannot be implemented if there is no key space reserved 
for third-party libraries.  Which is what the proposal is about.  The 
proposal is not about the particular mechanisms that could be used to bind 
keys in that reserved area.