Re: cus-misc: customize autoloads, environment variables (and key bindings)

[Simon Josefsson <jas@extundo.com>]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

> I think the `repeat' customization widget is rather inconvenient to
> use.
>
> I think that it is a mistake for [Ins] and [Del] to look similar.
> They do entirely different kinds of things.  [Del] applies to an
> existing entry, but [Ins] does not.  Having two similar-looking
> buttons for these two disparate operations can't help being confusing.
>
> Also, there is no way to reorder existing entries except to delete
> some and reinsert them from zero.
>
> This suggests the idea that the interface should provide a way to
> (1) delete any entry
> (2) move any entry to a new position
> (3) insert a new entry at the front
>
> [Del] and [Move] would both apply to an existing entry, so it would
> make sense to have these two buttons side by side.  Instead of [Ins],
> which is cryptic, we could have [Add new entry].  There would only
> be one such button, at the start of the list, so a long name is ok.
>
> With this change, perhaps these methods of customizing key bindings
> and env vars would be convenient enough to use.

Perhaps the "Move" idea can be refined by providing two buttons, one
"Move Up" and one "Move down" (possibly using some arrow glyph).  I
believe this is commonly used in other GUIs, so users should be
familiar with it.  The alternative, of having only one "Move" button,
implies clicking on that should question the user somehow, on where
she wants to move the entry.  This might get complicated.

But otherwise I think the suggestions are good.  Alas, I don't have
time, right now, to learn how custom widgets work to implement this.