From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Ctrl-[ ? Date: Sat, 08 Jun 2019 18:42:50 +0300 Message-ID: <83muisnkw5.fsf@gnu.org> References: <08AC8151-5911-40FA-8B20-818B839D00AB@traduction-libre.org> <86h892nk2g.fsf@zoho.eu> <9379C01B-80E3-49DD-B830-46CED773DC2C@traduction-libre.org> <83lfydrkde.fsf@gnu.org> <874l51q0s4.fsf@telefonica.net> <83ef45rdij.fsf@gnu.org> <87zhmto6fa.fsf@telefonica.net> <20190607163017.GA32029@tuxteam.de> <96B116FC-8007-4C42-9AE6-585530D0C76E@comcast.net> <87muisor2h.fsf@telefonica.net> <20190608084404.GB28228@tuxteam.de> <87h890ns41.fsf@telefonica.net> <83pnnonr15.fsf@gnu.org> Injection-Info: blaine.gmane.org; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:195.159.176.226"; logging-data="141813"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@blaine.gmane.org" To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Jun 08 17:43:29 2019 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1hZdVB-000amA-Et for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 08 Jun 2019 17:43:29 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:59138 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.86_2) (envelope-from ) id 1hZdVA-0006j4-9s for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 08 Jun 2019 11:43:28 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:54676) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.86_2) (envelope-from ) id 1hZdUg-0006it-1C for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 08 Jun 2019 11:42:59 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::e]:43517) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1hZdUf-0002w1-UU for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 08 Jun 2019 11:42:57 -0400 Original-Received: from [176.228.60.248] (port=1936 helo=home-c4e4a596f7) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtpsa (TLS1.2:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:256) (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1hZdUf-0002KD-45 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 08 Jun 2019 11:42:57 -0400 In-reply-to: (message from Jean-Christophe Helary on Sat, 8 Jun 2019 22:54:17 +0900) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "help-gnu-emacs" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:120842 Archived-At: > From: Jean-Christophe Helary > Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2019 22:54:17 +0900 > > > We have an enormously complex piece of software on > > our hands, and we have no better choice than going the "inconvenient" > > ways when we want to rebind an unusual key. > > In all honesty: > > (define-key input-decode-map "\C-[" [C-left-bracket]) > (define-key global-map [C-left-bracket] 'myfunction) > > is not inconvenient at all. What is inconvenient is the discovery process. AFAIU, that discovery process, and the fact that you need 2 lines of code rather than just one, was what was referred to as "inconvenient". > Knowing what I know about emacs (which is above the casual user) and even with the willingness to go through the manual, it would have been (it *has* been) impossible for me to find that solution. FWIW, I consider this not to be a catastrophe, far from it. Emacs is an enormously complex package, so it's impractical to require that everything in it is immediately discoverable and easily customizable. Especially when what you want to do is something as unusual as the case in point. I still hear every day one or two things I didn't know about Emacs, after all those years of using, customizing, and hacking it. We could (and do) add stuff to the manuals and the doc strings, but there's limit to how this could improve discoverability. We shouldn't expect, let alone demand, unreachable goals. > Now, what I'd love to know is what are the other "unusual" keys, because as a group, they deserve a few more lines in the manual. I suggest a careful reading of keymap.c and keyboard.c, the answer to this question is there.