Re: Suggestion: Ace-window in Emacs core for switching windows?

[Jeremy Bryant <jb@jeremybryant.net>]

Stefan Kangas <stefankangas@gmail.com> writes:

> Philip Kaludercic <philipk@posteo.net> writes:
>
>> Given that we already have windmove, would the addition of ace-window
>> really change that much?
>
> The same argument could be used for many packages that we have in core.
> Who needs Gnus when you have rmail, and so on.  The packages do
> basically the same thing, but in very different ways.
>
> I don't use ace-window myself, but note that it is the 28th most popular
> package on MELPA with 1,773,799 downloads, only slightly behind
> 'which-key' in popularity that we just added to core.
>
> See: https://melpa.org/#/?sort=downloads&asc=false
>
> Until we figure out how to bundle GNU ELPA packages, something that has
> seen little progress in a long time, I think there is a case to be made
> for adding some of the more popular packages to core.

FWIW, my personal reason for using ace-window is due to helping with
RSI.  I find that the facility to navigate windows by staying on the
home row reduces the travel distance on the keyboard.

I recognise that this may not be as essential for other users, and offer
these remarks just for wider understanding.


From ace-window.el:
;; By default, ace-window uses numbers for window labels so the window
;; labeling is intuitively ordered.  But if you prefer to type keys on
;; your home row for quicker access, use this setting:
;;
;;    (setq aw-keys '(?a ?s ?d ?f ?g ?h ?j ?k ?l))


I've adapted it to Dvorak layout as:
(setq aw-keys '(?a ?s ?d ?f ?g ?h ?j ?k ?l))