Re: C-j considered harmful (not really)

[Juri Linkov <juri@jurta.org>]

> 2. I don't like the idea of binding `S-RET' to newline. The argument is
> apparently that some users will be used to that and thus expect it. So what?
> There are so many more things to learn about Emacs that might not be what
> someone is used to. This is truly not a big deal, and it doesn't warrant
> sacrificing a good key such as `S-RET'. That key is naturally associated with
> RET, which is used often and has specific meanings in different contexts, so
> `S-RET' can be used for a variant of what RET does in any given context (see #1
> wrt the minibuffer's RET).
>
> `C-j' _IS_ newline. OK, some people don't know that. But most programmers of
> UNIX, Linux, C, etc. do know it, and others can surely learn it - no biggee. It
> is elegant to use the key to self-insert, the same way it is elegant to use the
> key `a' to insert an `a' character.

Fine, but note that `C-j' already has different non-self-insert-newline
semantics in other modes:

In Emacs-Lisp mode, C-j runs the command newline-and-indent.
In Lisp Interaction mode, C-j runs the command eval-print-last-sexp.
In Editable Wdired mode, C-j runs the command ignore.

BTW, see how users expect `C-q RET' to insert a newline in the minibuffer:
http://emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=4956

-- 
Juri Linkov
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/