Re: delete-selection-mode as default

[hw <hw@adminart.net>]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>> I agree.  What I want to happen after I make a region with ordinary
>> Emacs commands, including C-SPC M-f and C-x C-x, is this:
>>
>>   * It is active.
>>   * It is highlighted.
>>   * DEL does not delete it.
>>   * self-insert does not delete it.
>
> DEL has been deleting the active region (in the default config) for
> a while now.  And I'm pretty happy about that because it saves me
> a key-binding.  I think it's just as useful as confining undo and
> search&replace to the active region: the active region is an extra
> argument to the command.  It makes the active region into something
> comparable to the C-u prefix, a general way to structure the space of
> our commands.  VI has even more structure, and I wish Emacs moved more
> in this direction.

Aren't users going to need to set preferences as to what shall be
limited or extended in which way to or by an highlighted region when
more and more things fall under the paradigm of "doing something with a
region just because it is highlighted and thus to be considered more
active than when it is not"?

Delete-selection-mode may count as an example of such a preference; a
user not liking undo restricted to a region may be another.  The next
one might not like it that a non-highlighted region can be copied and
deleted and abused for navigation and would rather have it entirely
inert than only not so active.

At least I would separate between "highlighted" and "active" first and
go from there.  Otherwise users who don't like this paradigm still won't
be able to see what they have selected, and others can't see what they
have selected unless they want to do something with it, or abort wanting
to do something with it as soon as they've seen it.