Re: delete-selection-mode as default (WAS: Some developement questions)

[Joost Kremers <joostkremers@fastmail.fm>]

On Fri, Sep 07 2018, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> Feel free to start a user poll, though: if it turns out I'm the 
> only
> one who thinks delete-selection-mode is inappropriate in 
> programming
> modes, we can make it the default; I can easily turn it off in 
> my
> configuration.  Though I would urge people to actually try this 
> in
> programming modes before responding, and in any case the poll 
> should
> request to provide the major modes used with the responses.

My €0.02: I'd say this thread has already shown that a poll won't 
be of much help here. Whether you prefer `delete-selection-mode` 
on or off really depends on your workflow, and de fluminibus 
operis non est disputandum, to paraphrase a well-known adage.

So I'd suggest that any decision regarding the default value of 
`delete-selection-mode` should not be based on such 
considerations. Rather, two questions should be considered: a) 
"Would leaving it off scare away potential new users?" and b) 
"Would turning it on obscure an option that is potentially useful 
to at least a subset of new users?"

I suspect the answer to both questions is "yes". If you're trying 
out a new piece of software, any behaviour that differs from what 
you're used to (after all, what `delete-selection-mode` does is 
standard behaviour in most software out there and most new users 
will take it for granted) is off-putting and might lead you to 
give up, especially if it's not immediately clear why the 
behaviour is different.

On the other hand, if `delete-selection-mode` is on by default, 
most, if not all, new users will never even consider the 
possibility that Emacs has the option to disable it and that that 
might actually fit their workflow better.

All in all, despite having `delete-selection-mode` on myself, I 
think it should be kept off by default, but with a note in the 
tutorial somewhere that it can be turned on. Or perhaps it could 
be made such that the first time a new user types a character with 
an active region, a message pops up saying that Emacs doesn't 
normally overwrite an active region, with an explanation why and a 
note that it can be configured to do so if desired. It would be 
similar to how disabled commands work (though IIUC it couldn't be 
implemented easily as a disabled command, so adding such a 
mechanism might not be trivial).




-- 
Joost Kremers
Life has its moments