bug#43380: 28.0.50; [PATCH] Set mwheel default scroll value to 1

bug#43380: 28.0.50; [PATCH] Set mwheel default scroll value to 1

[Theodor Thornhill via Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors]

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Hello!

In the spirit of moving towards a more "modern" emacs, I'll address with
a patch the thing that actually confuses me personally the most.  Also,
it seems like an (dare I say it) uncontroversial change: set default
scroll value to 1.  It is mentioned as a small step towards the "smooth"
scrolling.  Is there some other places that needs to be updated?

Have a nice day!
Theodor Thornhill


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diff --git a/etc/NEWS b/etc/NEWS
index db2adcec15..7e95b55d0b 100644
--- a/etc/NEWS
+++ b/etc/NEWS
@@ -127,6 +127,11 @@ the mouse cursor is on the scroll bars, fringes, margins, header line,
 and mode line.  ('mwheel-mode' is enabled by default on most graphical
 displays.)
 
+---
+** Mouse wheel scrolling now defaults to one line at a time
+Default value is changed as discussed in etc/TODO.
+Old default of five lines at a time is now bound to Shift modifier.
+
 ---
 ** The default value of 'frame-title-format' and icon-title-format' has changed.
 These variables are used to display the title bar of visible frames
diff --git a/etc/TODO b/etc/TODO
index 152a29964f..b445b67360 100644
--- a/etc/TODO
+++ b/etc/TODO
@@ -924,17 +924,14 @@ features of that interface could be implemented NS.
 
 **** Smooth scrolling -- maybe not a good idea
 Today, by default, scrolling with a trackpad makes the text move in
-steps of five lines.  (Scrolling with SHIFT scrolls one line at a time.)
+steps of one line.  (Scrolling with SHIFT scrolls five lines at a time.)
 
 The "mac" port provides smooth, pixel-based, scrolling.  This is a very
-popular features.  However, there are drawbacks to this method: what
+popular feature.  However, there are drawbacks to this method: what
 happens if only a fraction of a line is visible at the top of a
 window, is the partially visible text considered part of the window or
 not?  (Technically, what should 'window-start' return.)
 
-An alternative would be to make one-line scrolling the default on NS
-(or in Emacs in general).
-
 Note: This feature might not be allowed to be implemented until also
 implemented in Emacs for a free system.
 
diff --git a/lisp/mwheel.el b/lisp/mwheel.el
index 3b93bd1d5e..0e65ba883c 100644
--- a/lisp/mwheel.el
+++ b/lisp/mwheel.el
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ mouse-wheel-inhibit-click-time
   :type 'number)
 
 (defcustom mouse-wheel-scroll-amount
-  '(5 ((shift) . 1) ((meta) . nil) ((control) . text-scale))
+  '(1 ((shift) . 5) ((meta) . nil) ((control) . text-scale))
   "Amount to scroll windows by when spinning the mouse wheel.
 This is an alist mapping the modifier key to the amount to scroll when
 the wheel is moved with the modifier key depressed.
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ mouse-wheel-scroll-amount
                     (float :tag "Scroll fraction of window")
                     (const :tag "Change face size" :value text-scale)))))
   :set 'mouse-wheel-change-button
-  :version "27.1")
+  :version "28.1")
 
 (defcustom mouse-wheel-progressive-speed t
   "If non-nil, the faster the user moves the wheel, the faster the scrolling.

bug#43380: 28.0.50; [PATCH] Set mwheel default scroll value to 1

[Stefan Kangas]

Hi Theodor,

Theodor Thornhill <theo@thornhill.no> writes:

> In the spirit of moving towards a more "modern" emacs, I'll address with
> a patch the thing that actually confuses me personally the most.  Also,
> it seems like an (dare I say it) uncontroversial change: set default
> scroll value to 1.  It is mentioned as a small step towards the "smooth"
> scrolling.  Is there some other places that needs to be updated?

Thanks for the patch.

Could you give some additional rationale for this change?  For example,
what does other software do here?  What does other editors do?  In what
way does this help make Emacs behavior less surprising?

Best regards,
Stefan Kangas

bug#43380: 28.0.50; [PATCH] Set mwheel default scroll value to 1

[Theodor Thornhill via Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors]

On September 18, 2020 4:04:18 PM GMT+02:00, Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se> wrote:
>Hi Theodor,
>
>Theodor Thornhill <theo@thornhill.no> writes:
>
>> In the spirit of moving towards a more "modern" emacs, I'll address with
>> a patch the thing that actually confuses me personally the most.  Also,
>> it seems like an (dare I say it) uncontroversial change: set default
>> scroll value to 1.  It is mentioned as a small step towards the "smooth"
>> scrolling.  Is there some other places that needs to be updated?
>
>Thanks for the patch.
>
>Could you give some additional rationale for this change?  

Of course! Scrolling by 5 lines scrolls extremely fast when using touchpad, so much so that on my personal laptop in scrolls to the end of even pretty large files by moving my finger less than a centimeter. Also, since there is no tactile feedback on a touchpad, it gets very hard to predict. When swapping these, the ones wanting the five by five still get it by using shift. 

> For example, what does other software do here? 

Most software scrolls pixel wise, and that is still a ways to go for emacs, if I understand correctly.

> What does other editors do?  

The same as most other software, pixel wise. Comparable editors, like vim, scrolls one by one

>In what way does this help make Emacs behavior less surprising?

This should be as close to pixel wise we can get, and will be a lot more similar in behavior to most other software, be it editors or browser or whatnot.

Hope this clarifies the rationale a little.

Have a nice day!

Theodor Thornhill

bug#43380: 28.0.50; [PATCH] Set mwheel default scroll value to 1

[Juri Linkov]

tags 43380 fixed
close 43380 28.0.50
thanks

>>> In the spirit of moving towards a more "modern" emacs, I'll address with
>>> a patch the thing that actually confuses me personally the most.  Also,
>>> it seems like an (dare I say it) uncontroversial change: set default
>>> scroll value to 1.  It is mentioned as a small step towards the "smooth"
>>> scrolling.  Is there some other places that needs to be updated?
>>
>>Thanks for the patch.
>>
>>Could you give some additional rationale for this change?
>
> Of course! Scrolling by 5 lines scrolls extremely fast when using touchpad,
> so much so that on my personal laptop in scrolls to the end of even pretty
> large files by moving my finger less than a centimeter. Also, since there
> is no tactile feedback on a touchpad, it gets very hard to predict. When
> swapping these, the ones wanting the five by five still get it by
> using shift.
>
>> For example, what does other software do here?
>
> Most software scrolls pixel wise, and that is still a ways to go for emacs, if I understand correctly.
>
>> What does other editors do?
>
> The same as most other software, pixel wise. Comparable editors, like vim, scrolls one by one
>
>>In what way does this help make Emacs behavior less surprising?
>
> This should be as close to pixel wise we can get, and will be a lot more similar in behavior to most other software, be it editors or browser or whatnot.
>
> Hope this clarifies the rationale a little.

Thanks, your patch is applied now (in anticipation of more changes in bug#43568)