Re: [Emacs-diffs] /srv/bzr/emacs/trunk r99650: Put scroll-bar on right by default on UNIX.

[Daniel Pittman <daniel@rimspace.net>]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>     The problem is with how ``convenient'' is decided.  I suspect most
>     users nowadays will say that having the scroll bar on the right is the
>     most ``convenient''.
>
> Rather than supposing, let's ask the users what they prefer, and why.

For what it is worth, having used Emacs for over ten years now my preference
would be to place the scroll-bar on the right by default.[1]

Over the course of that period I have used the scroll-bar on the left, for
many years, and on the right, for roughly the same period of time[2].

For my use, where I don't use it to scroll because I strongly prefer the
keyboard, and only occasionally use it as an indication of document position,
this is a nicer position than on the left for me.

I find it less visually distracting positioned out of the way, and more
consistent with other applications that I use.  These are, primarily, esthetic
issues, not practical issues.


However, I strongly agree with your later comment, Richard, that I am not the
user that you should be caring about here: after ten years of using Emacs, and
as a software developer, it wouldn't bother me where the default was,
because I know that I can change it.


I think that for a new user, even if it was the worst option[3], being
consistent with other applications by default is a good choice.

Emacs is a hard tool to learn, and it cost me a lot of suffering and tears
when I first had to use it after using GoldEd and other non-programmable (and
non-free) editors for some years.

The more non-standard things the new user is confronted with, the harder they
are going to find it to learn Emacs, and for better or worse my experience
suggests that many users are quite visually- and mouse-focused when they start
using a new software package.

Regards,
        Daniel

Footnotes: 
[1]  I would strongly oppose any movement to force people to use this, by
     removing options to hide or alter the placement of the scroll-bar, of
     course, since personal taste is naturally personal.

[2]  I swapped them over about five years back now, thinking on it.

[3]  ...the articles discussing actual research into scroll-bar placement,
     posted earlier in this thread, suggest that "on the right" was the best
     option twenty years ago, and it is now even more embedded in the learned
     experience of computing.

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