Re: delete-selection-mode

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

"Lennart Borgman (gmail)" <lennart.borgman@gmail.com> writes:

> David Kastrup wrote:
>> "Lennart Borgman (gmail)" <lennart.borgman@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> David Kastrup wrote:
>>>> With the current semantics of active regions and delete-selection-mode,
>>>> I consider the end result painful.  That does not change that it may
>>>> also be in some cases be useful.
>>>>
>>>> Does really nobody have an idea how to improve the situation?
>>> Do I understand you right when I assume that the painful thing for old
>>> users would be that typing new text would delete the selection?
>>>
>>> Many new users expects this.
>>
>> Not when they are not expecting an active region in the first place.
>> There are more ways to make a region active than the explicit ways that
>> a "new user expects".
>
> Why does that matter? Are we not talking about a visibly marked
> region?

Not everybody searches the screen for tell-tale signs of an active
region before typing any letter.

>>> If the default will be that typing new text replaces the visible
>>> region then maybe there should be a substate where it is possible to
>>> type in new text while the region is visible? One way this could be
>>> done is to let C-x C-x go into that substate (in addition to doing
>>> what it does now).
>>>
>>> Would that be to inconvinient?
>>
>> It sounds messy.  We already have too many different region states.
>
> But the wish to make this work for both new and old users call for a
> new state, right?

Wrong.  I already proposed folding mouse-activated-deletion mode into
transient regions which would make for one less state, and provide a
somewhat less contentious part of delete-selection-mode.

Is there a reason you are ignoring that particular proposal?

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum