Re: New special-mode parent

["Lennart Borgman (gmail)" <lennart.borgman@gmail.com>]

Stefan Monnier wrote:
> While thinking about the key-binding problems we have in vc-annotate it
> occurred to me that it should use a view-mode minor mode, but rather it
> should inherit from a sort of view-mode major mode, so it can override
> its key-bindings.  And it occurred to me that it should be called
> `special-mode' and should probably be used by most "special" major modes
> (those that set the mode-class property to `special').
> 
> So I'm considering adding to subr.el a simple parent major mode:
> 
>    (defvar special-mode-map
>      (let ((map (make-sparse-keymap)))
>        (suppress-keymap map)
>        (define-key map "q" 'quit-window)
>        (define-key map " " 'scroll-up)
>        (define-key map "\C-?" 'scroll-down)
>        (define-key map "?" 'describe-mode)
>        (define-key map ">" 'end-of-buffer)
>        (define-key map "<" 'beginning-of-buffer)
>        (define-key map "g" 'revert-buffer)
>        map))
>    
>    (put 'special-mode 'mode-class 'special)
>    (define-derived-mode special-mode nil "Special"
>      "Parent major mode from which special major modes should inherit."
>      (setq buffer-read-only t))
> 
> The above is 100% guaranteed thoroughly untested (written directly in
> this *mail* buffer), so it's just a rough approximation, but should give
> you some idea of where I'm going.
> 
> Any comment?


I did not follow the vc discussion, but I like the idea of inherited 
general key binding sets. Though I am not sure they have to be in the 
form of a major mode. (Maybe sometimes multiple keymap parents would be 
useful, but that is another question.)

To me your suggestion here looks good. I would however prefer 
`special-view-mode'.